Life of an Agent
by Halfblood With A SIG And A Pen
Summary: Series of oneshots involving our favorite agents. Chapter twenty one is Daisy being stubborn about an injury. Prompts are always welcome and appreciated.
1. Distance

**Okay, first try at Agents of Shield fanfiction, I'm excited.**

 _Ignoring Simmons being abducted by the weird alien rock, this takes place a few months after the season two finale._

Skye was surprised that Lincoln had stayed with SHIELD this long even though he had feared the agency, but if she was being completely honest with herself she knew why he was there. But, instead she convinced herself he must have grown attached to the team like she had despite how hard she had previously fought against the agency.

~_~AOS~_~

"Hey Skye." Lincoln called. "I'm on my way to the kitchen, you want to come?"

"Sorry, no, I've got to go . . . talk to Simmons . . . about something. Maybe later?" Skye tried to ignore the disappointed look on his face.

"OK, I'll catch up to you later I guess." Lincoln turned away, and Skye immediately felt bad. She knew she was giving him the cold shoulder without an explanation.

 _Without_ _a_ _legitimate_ _reason_ , she thought to herself.

Skye walked and eventually found herself in the lab. She didn't really know why she had made her way here, or what she wanted to accomplish, but she made her way over to Simmons anyway like she had claimed she would.

"I need to talk to you." Skye said when she had finally drawn Jemma's attention away from whatever complicated thing she had been working on.

"Is everything alright, Skye?" The scientist said, concerned for her friend's wellbeing.

"I need friend Jemma, not Doctor Simmons." Skye said only partly joking.

"I'm only one person Skye."

~_~ AOS ~_~

Lincoln was confused. For the past couple of months he had helped Skye on every mission she was called on, continued her training with her powers, and helped her with her assignment of creating an inhuman team. He thought they were getting closer, that she might even like him back, but whenever he tried to subtly ask her to do something with him outside of work, she froze and made up some excuse to get out of it. Maybe he should talk to Simmons. The two seemed close maybe he could get her to open up to him since Skye wouldn't.

~_~AOS~_~

After Skye had a long talk with Simmons, she went to her bunk to mull over what her friend had told her. She knew she needed to talk to Lincoln, explain things to him, but she didn't know how. She needed time, but most of all she needed a solution.

~_~AOS~_~

"Um, hey Simmons?" Lincoln asked nervously. "Could we talk?" He paused and looked around at the room full of scientists and felt even more self-conscious. "Somewhere a bit more private?"

She nodded and gestured for him to follow her as she brought him to an empty room. He sat on the table while Simmons remained standing. "Is this about Skye?" She asked gauging his reaction.

He looked up at her, surprised. "How did you know?"

"She came to talk to me earlier." Simmons gave Lincoln a half smile. She wanted to see them get together but understood Skye's hesitation.

"I just don't get it. I know something must be going on, but what?" Lincoln rubbed both of his hands down his face. "When we're working together or around other people, she's the Skye I met at Afterlife. Sarcastic, funny, happy, curious, excitable, flirty even. She's . . . she's Skye."

Jemma saw the smile reaching his eyes as he described her. It was a look of pure adoration and, well, love, though Jemma found it hard to comprehend as they'd only know each other for a fairly short amount of time.

"But," he continued. "I want to do more than just work with her. I want to be with her. Even if we just went back to being friends it would be okay, but every time I try to ask her to do something outside of work . . . it's like she wants nothing to do with me anymore."

"Oh Lincoln," Simmons said finally taking a seat beside him. "Skye wants to be with you too. She said as much when we talked earlier. She wasn't really sure why she was pushing you away, but I get it." Simmons paused waiting for his response, but he remained silent. Jemma took that as permission to continue. "She's scared."

Simmons waned to laugh at the look on Lincoln's face. He had only seen her afraid of one thing and that was her power. He couldn't think of any reason for her to be afraid of him. "Why?" was all he managed to say.

"Her last boyfriend turned out to be a member of Hydra. He betrayed us and he dropped Fitz and I from a plane above the ocean. Fitz still struggles occasionally from the resulting brain damage."

"I've heard some of what Ward did."

"Then her boyfriend before him, Miles, was an anti-SHIELD/big brother hacktivist like she used to be. Unlike her, he sold information to Hydra under the guise of Project Centipede which led to a man being captured, imprisoned, experimented on, tortured, and eventually killed." Lincoln's eyes widened. "So, you can see why she's a bit hesitant to date again, no matter how much she likes you?"

Lincoln nodded. He had to admit he wouldn't be eager to date again after those happenings. "So, what can I do to help her? _Is_ there anything I can do to help her?"

"Give her some time. When she's ready to put herself out there again, she'll come to you. I don't think it'll be too long, but, just . . . don't give up on her, okay?"

"Never. Thanks Simmons." Lincoln got up to leave.

"And, if you ever do hurt her, I don't care if you have powers, you will be taken care of." Jemma's cool demeanor as she gave that threat unnerved him.

"I won't." With that he left.

Fitz went into the room where Jemma still sat. He gave her a short kiss then sat down beside her in the spot Lincoln had recently occupied.

"You've been quite popular today. What's going on?"

"Our team is trying to convince me to go back and get a degree in relationship therapy." Jemma sighed.

 **As always I live off of prompts and reviews. If you want a continuation of this or another oneshot all you must do is ask and wait. Sorry I still have homework to be doing.**


	2. Different

**Prompt from Dancer4813. "I'd love to see the continuation of this, where Skye finally realizes Lincoln won't hurt her like Ward did."**

 **Thanks for all the reviews. They make my world a better place.**

Skye didn't come out of her room at all that night. When May came to see if she would come down for dinner, she was unresponsive. May opened her door to find her curled into a ball on her bed staring off into space. She walked over to the girl she had come to see as her own, no that she would admit it, and, in an increasingly common show of affection toward her, sat beside her and rubbed small circles on her back.

May wasn't sure exactly what was bothering her, but knew the girl had been through enough in the last few months to warrant a small breakdown.

Skye relaxed into May's embrace. Neither said a word, and Skye was comforted by the silence. She had talked enough that day. Eventually May was called away and Skye was left alone with her thoughts.

Thoughts of Miles. How he went against the ideals they had fought for anyway. He _sold_ information. How his actions led to a man's suffering and death. He refused to listen to her when she told him and even showed him that SHIELD wasn't the real bad guy like they had both thought. She had had more reason to hate SHIELD than he did, but she changed her mind. Why couldn't he? He almost made her lose the closest thing to family she had ever known.

She also thought of the pain Ward had caused her. When they first met, he was hard on her, untrusting, but eventually he had warmed up to her, helped her, and trained her. Then he changed again.

 _Or_ _well it seemed like he had changed, but really he just showed his true colors._ Skye thought bitterly.

He had spied on her team, worked with Garret who had her shot just to find out how to save himself, threw FitzSimmons out of a plane, kidnapped her, tortured Bobbie, and betrayed the whole team. He was a freaking Nazi, and he claimed that nothing he did was personal. He was a psychopath!

But, then she thought about everything she had been through with Lincoln. Well, everything that happened between them after she got off the creepy table and got her clothes back.

Lincoln had shown her around Afterlife. He had taken her to his favorite place. It wasn't a secret spot, but it was beautiful. He had even made her smile when she was stressed about her destructive powers and worried about her team. He had only known her for a short time, but he knew things about how she thought, like when he showed her his powers he knew that she would be to curious not to hold his hand. He had told her about his experience coming out of the mist, and tried to make her less afraid of her "gift" as he called it. Lincoln had been her friend and tried to make her feel welcome and at home at Afterlife when everyone had just stared at her.

But he had also _lied_ to her that day. He told her that Raina and Cal, the two people she had wanted to be the farthest from, were not at Afterlife, but they were. At the time it had felt like a big betrayal, but he was just trying to protect Raina from Skye and Skye from Cal. He hadn't wanted to hurt her.

Then there was the day after the family dinner where he helped Skye when she didn't know what to do about Cal. Unlike Jiaying, he had understood her need to protect those people even if she didn't know them, and then when Skye was left alone with Cal, by her own choice, he had willingly followed to make sure she stayed out of danger even though he knew Cal was more likely to hurt him than Skye.

Later that day he had been captured protecting her from Hydra. All of this he had done without complaint because he really cared about her.

But that wasn't even the end of it. When her mother had gotten every inhuman ready and willing to completely wipe out SHIELD, he trusted her. He fought alongside SHIELD, went against everything he had believed, fought against his own people, all because he believed her. Then he had _stayed_. He had stayed with SHIELD, with _her._

Lincoln trusted her, unlike Miles. Skye could trust him, unlike Ward. He wasn't anything like her old horrible boyfriends. He was better. He was, well . . . Lincoln.

It was well past midnight when she finally came to that conclusion, but with her mind made up, she was finally able to fall into a restful sleep.

~_~AOS~_~

Lincoln had been concerned when Skye didn't come down to dinner. She was always hungry. He wanted to go check on her, but remembered what Simmons had told him, _give her time_. Still he was relieved when May went to check on her and didn't come back for a long time. Someone needed to be there for her, even if it couldn't be him.

That night he had trouble sleeping. He knew that he would wait as long as he had to. But what if by that time she didn't like _him_ anymore? What if it was someone else that she was ready to be in a relationship with? He knew he was being ridiculous, he wanted her to be happy even if it wasn't with him. He lov- yeah, he loved her.

~_~AOS~_~

Skye woke up the latest, which was odd because May usually had her up at five am to train. She went to the Playground's common room and found Lincoln sitting on the couch alone watching tv. Skye had entered quietly enough that he hadn't heard her come in. She made her way around the couch before he noticed her.

"Hey Skye." He greeted.

"Hey." She sat down beside him close enough that her leg was touching his.

Lincoln smiled at their proximity. He had decided to start taking pleasure in the little things and, at least for now, it was all he needed.

He was pleasantly surprised when she leaned closer to him and kissed him. The kiss was short and sweet unlike most of her first kisses. _Nothing about them would be the same as her past relationships_ , she thought as Lincoln took her hand in his and she leaned against her shoulder.


	3. Daughter

**Prompt from Dancer4813. Coulson being sort of an overprotective dad (since Cal isn't there to do that).**

Coulson had always treated Skye like a daughter, but he knew that she wasn't his. She was Cal's daughter. His conversation with Cal before he put him through the TAHITI program ran through his mind.

" _I know I won't be there for her anymore." Cal shook his head. "She's says that she'll come visit, but Daisy needs more of a father than someone in a cage that she can occasionally visit. You said that she was the closest thing to family that you had. It's time to prove that. I can't be her dad, not that I really have been anyway. You need to be."_

" _You_ have _been her dad." Coulson shook his head at the man's self-deprecation. "You were there for her right when she needed you the most."_

" _You're a nice guy, Phil, but I put Skye through a lot that she otherwise wouldn't have had to deal with. So, before I go away, just do one thing, one thing for me. Promise me you'll be the dad she needs."_

" _I promise."_

Coulson had been struck by how sincere he was. The same man who had fought against Coulson and hated him for, among other things, his parental relationship with his daughter, was now asking him to be Skye's dad. Cal just wanted Skye to have a family, even if it could no longer be him. That was another thing. He had, for the first time, referred to his Skye by her chosen name. It was his own way of letting Coulson know that Skye had already chosen who her real family was.

He would keep his promise. Happily. There was one thing that Coulson had agreed with Cal on: Skye deserved a family that would not turn on her. She had gone her whole life being tossed from family to family, never feeling wanted, and Coulson would make sure that that never happened again.

That was what reminded him. Lincoln was still here, and Coulson knew exactly why.

He found the boy in the kitchen with Skye and FitzSimmons. Coulson watched as his daughter used her powers to send a piece of popcorn flying toward Lincoln, who caught it in his mouth. Skye leaned closer and kissed him on the cheek. He swallowed the popcorn and pulled her in for a real kiss.

After they pulled apart, Coulson decided to make his presence known. Lincoln worried about how much he had witnessed.

"Do not start a food fight." He said to Skye, and Lincoln's unspoken question was answered. "Lincoln, could I speak to you for a moment?" He grabbed a glass of water and walked out of the kitchen, closely followed by Lincoln.

"What's this about, sir?" Lincoln asked trying to look innocent.

"I think you know." Coulson looked at him with the most serious, intimidating gaze that he could muster. "Skye has already been though more than anyone should ever have to, so know that if you hurt her ever a little . . . I will kill you. It will be slow, it will be painful, and it might even be public. I have a secret multinational militant agency, agents loyal to me and to Skye, and years of combat training. Do you understand me?"

"Yes, sir. I'm not going to hurt her. That's the last thing I want. I want her to be happy, and I just- I think I can make her happy." Lincoln looked Coulson right in the eye.

"Good answer." Coulson nodded.

He knew that he couldn't stop Skye from doing what she wanted even if he wanted to, but it felt good to threaten her new boyfriend. At the same time, Coulson felt relieved by the conversation because he fully believed that Lincoln was telling the truth about wanting to make Skye happy, and Coulson had witnessed their interaction earlier. It had been a while since he had seen that side of Skye. She had been a bit more serious a bit less smiley, and she had good reasons for it, but Coulson had missed his little girl's smile. If Lincoln could bring that smile back, Coulson wanted him around.

"I have a feeling you don't want her to know what this conversation was about, so what do you want me to tell her?"

"Half the truth. Tell her I was giving you the official offer for a job as an agent. Caterpillar team." Coulson watched the man's face go from serious to confused to hesitant to thrilled all in just a matter of seconds. He assumed Lincoln would say yes so that he could be close to Skye, but he couldn't be sure. Lincoln had been taught that SHIELD was evil. He had seen differently, but Coulson wasn't sure that distrust had gone away enough for him to work for SHIELD.

"What do I need to sign and what is Caterpillar team?" Coulson laughed at Lincoln's reaction. Skye had had a similar reaction to the name of the team.

"Talk to Skye. She'll get you the paperwork and fill you in. Don't mention the team to FitzSimmons, I haven't told them yet." Coulson was still going to keep an eye on the young man but for now he was good for Skye.

"Ok, thank you sir." Lincoln said turning away.

"You start combat training with May and Skye tomorrow at six am. Do _not_ be late. May doesn't take well to people being late."

Lincoln chuckled a little. "What's she going to think if I'm early?"

"That you're afraid of her." Coulson smiled.

"I am afraid of her."

"Good. Be early."

Coulson walked away from Lincoln, and Lincoln walked back to the kitchen where he was met with curious eyes.

"What was that about?" Skye asked as he took his seat by her side.

"I just got the official job offer. I start training at six in the morning and you're supposed to help me with paperwork."

Skye smiled big and kissed him. Coulson would only have her help with paperwork for two reasons; Lincoln was going to be on her new team, or her overprotective boss/father/friend had given his approval of her boyfriend.


	4. Training

**Prompt from Dancer4813. May being an overprotective mother figure? (Because we all know May could take Lincoln down, powers or no powers) + the training session with May. I like to imagine how she would treat Lincoln- as a beginner? Or would she jump right in?**

 **Has anyone else noticed that when Ming Na Way says Jiaying, her voice is completely different just for the one word? I understand why it happens, but it makes me smile every time and I'm curious if anybody else even cares or if I found another way that I'm crazy.**

 _After the ordeal with her mother on the ship, Skye had pulled May aside._

" _I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry I fought you. I'm sorry I hurt you. I'm sorry I didn't trust you. I'm sorry I chose Jiaying over you." Skye had started crying. "I'm sorry, so sorry."_

" _It's ok. It's ok." May pulled the girls into her arms. "You had a choice between your recently shot mother and SHIELD. You couldn't have known what she was planning. She was your mother, your real mother. No one is going to blame you for trusting her."_

" _She was my biological mother, not my real mother."_

 _May's heart swelled at what she thought might have meant. Maybe the girl she saw as a daughter saw her as a mother. May promised herself that she would be a better mother to her than Jiaying whether Skye saw her that way or not._

" _You're my real mother." Skye mumbled had into her shoulder._

 _May didn't say a word, she just pulled Skye closer to her as she continued to cry. May didn't mind that her shirt was getting wet, she only wanted her little girl to be okay again._

 _Lincoln had walked into the room about then, saw the two of them, and walked back out slowly. She thought she had seen a hint of a smile._

When Coulson told May that he had offered Lincoln a permanent job at SHIELD, at first she had been concerned. She didn't really want him around her little girl, but what could she do. Then he told her with a wink, which she laughed at, that she would be in charge of his training.

She understood the opportunity he was giving her. Skye was their kid, and they would scare her boyfriend to the best of their abilities, and filing people with fear was something they did quite well.

May was in the workout room doing Tai Chi a half an hour before they were scheduled to begin training. She knew Skye would be two minutes late, and she suspected Lincoln would be there five minutes early out of fear.

She was right about him. He walked through the door five minutes early, and he looked like he had been up half the night. Lincoln walked toward the bench and sat down, presumably waiting for Skye to arrive.

May stood facing him and watched him silently for a moment. "Skye seems to really like you." He looked up at her to meet her gaze. He smiled. "It's been a while since she really opened up to anyone like that." His smile faded a bit. It was nice for him to know he wasn't a rebound, but that was in no way worth the knowledge that she had been hurt that badly. "You seem to care about her, and that's good, but if so much as one tear falls from her eyes that was caused by you . . ." May trailed off with a sickening grin. "Let's just that, powers or not, I can take you down, and I know where I can hurt you to make you die from pain rather than injury."

Despite himself he laughed. May glared harder at him.

"Sorry, it's just- I watched Skye interact with her other parents, and while she was happy to know them when they were showing their less than crazy sides, she didn't look at them the way she looks at you and Coulson. It's nice to see that she has better parents than them. And I know you're going to think that I'm just trying to butter you up so that you won't kill me, which I would prefer you didn't do, but I really like Skye. Like I told Coulson when we had this conversation yesterday, I just want her to be happy. I love seeing her smile and hearing her laugh, and I've made her do both. I'm not going to hurt her. I know that you just want to protect her, and she told me about what Ward did, but I'm not him. I don't have a hidden agenda. I just love Skye."

"Love?" May asked trying to hide the smile that her mouth was threatening to form.

"Wasn't exactly the word that I was expecting to roll off my tongue, I mean I've only know her for a few months, but yeah." His voice got softer and it was more like he was speaking to himself rather than Agent May. "I love Skye."

He wasn't claiming it was love at first sight or anything, but maybe love can happen quickly. He had always pictured love as something that took a long time to grow, but, Lincoln supposed, stranger things had happened. He had lightning powers and his girlfriend could cause earthquakes and avalanches, for goodness sake.

May had gotten one thing wrong that morning. Skye had shown up four minutes early to training expecting her boyfriend to be there early and wanting to support him. She knew how afraid he was of May. She had heard them talking just as she was about to enter the room, so she stopped. She heard every word. By the end of her mother's talk with her boyfriend she found herself smiling giddily, which, of course, she would never admit to. She ended up walking through the door two minutes late after all because it took her that long to wipe that ridiculous grin off her face.

Lincoln had had some self-defense training at Afterlife and some that he refused to admit to before he discovered he was inhuman, so May decided they would have a three way fight without using their powers just to see where he was at in his training. After only a few minutes May asked Skye to observe because Lincoln refused to hit her even if she was coming at him.

As per usual May attacked before Lincoln knew that they were starting, but due to his lightning fast reflexes, pun intended, he was able to duck under her blow.

Lincoln was a better fighter than Skye had realized, but he was nowhere near a match for May. In less than two minutes she had knocked him off his feet and pinned him down.

"You would be dead." She had the decency not to smile, but she was enjoying this. "Try again."

This time Lincoln threw the first punch, which most people didn't date to do when training with May, not that Lincoln would know. She grabbed his arm mid-swing and flipped him while running up the wall.

"Again." She said simply.

This continued for about an hour, and while it was very entertaining, Skye got kind of sick of watching May beat the crap out of her boyfriend.

 _Her boyfriend who was in love with her._ She thought to herself.

She figured she should get some training in, so she tapped her hands and went to the punching bag.

Agent May might not have been too worried about him hurting her girl anymore after his all-around surprising confession, but she still took the opportunity to make him fear her a little more. That was how Skye found herself helping patch up her boyfriend.

 **My parents were pretty much engaged after their first date, and they are still together, so growing up knowing that kind of warped my view of love. I do not believe in love at first sight, but I do believe that it can happen quickly.**

 **I feel like Skye and Lincoln got to know each other pretty well, pretty quickly, that their relationship would kind of reflect that, but I don't think either of them would be quick to admit their feelings.**

 **What do you guys think?**


	5. Birthday

**Prompt from The Little Roguex. "An overprotective Phil and Fitzsimmons chapter because assuming Fitzsimmons cannot contact their families much now for fear of putting them in danger they would eventually feel jealous that Phil favors Skye over everyone else. Like Phil would bend over backwards and deal with tons of messy alien stuff for Skye yet Fitzsimmons cannot even get a goldfish or a dog. It is obvious that Skye is the favorite child and no matter how strong Fitzsimmons are it has to still hurt them."**

 **In this one I'll focus on Fitz. Next will be Simmons.**

 **This one's written completely after midnight, but I'm on caffeine, so maybe it won't be so bad.**

 **Yay, caffeine! She typed sarcastically. Note to self: remember which kinds of water flavoring powders contain caffeine when preparing a drink at midnight. I'm not a fan of being needlessly awake at four in the morning.**

 **I have a few chapters of this story stocked up, but I need to focus on some summer homework because school is starting up again soon, and pretty soon I won't have access to the internet or even Word, so things are going to slow down a bit. Sorry.**

Today was Fitz's birthday. It was hard for him every year because he couldn't visit or even call his family for fear of putting them or a mission in danger, so the only person he really had was Simmons.

There were times he found himself jealous of Skye. He knew she had grown up without a family, feeling completely unwanted, and that must have been harder than Fitz could imagine, but now she was with people who considered her their daughter every single day.

He knew he wasn't alone in that feeling. Twenty three days from now Jemma would be going through the exact same thing.

They had known Coulson, and even May, slightly longer than Skye had, yet she had somehow wormed her way into their hearts in a way that FitzSimmons couldn't.

Fitz didn't even know if anyone besides Jemma realized it was his birthday. He knew that if they didn't it would be partially his fault because he didn't make a big fuss about it, but it still hurt when people didn't remember. That was why he was finding it hard to get out of bed that day.

The only thing that managed to get him out of bed was the smell of breakfast. His stomach was not as self-conscious as the rest of his body.

Slowly he made his way down to the Playground's kitchen. Where he found Coulson in an apron that said "Super Dad" with the Superman logo between the words. He was currently trying to flip pancakes, but it wasn't going so well due to the fact he wasn't used to having just one hand, and he had never been that good at it to being with.

"Happy birthday, Leo." Coulson said when he looked up and saw the young scientist.

Fitz was pleasantly surprised. Coulson had remembered his birthday, called him _Leo_ , which even Jemma rarely did, and made him a birthday breakfast.

Coulson was still struggling when May came down. _Andrew had told them all that she was a terrible cook, but she couldn't be worse at flipping pancakes than one handed Coulson_ , Fitz thought. He was proven wrong. Despite her ninja-like reflexes she managed to drop three pancakes on the ground. It wasn't until Skye and Jemma took over the griddle that anything actually resembling pancakes was made, but Fitz appreciated the attempt. Fitz also appreciated the fact that after Skye and Jemma started cooking, May and Coulson sat and talked with him. _May_ talked, to _him_.

Skye and Simmons walked over to the tables where everyone had now gathered, balancing a haphazardly stacked pile of pancakes, with a lit candle on top, which he would later discover was Coulson's idea.

The day continued without missions. Coulson and Simmons sat on the couch beside him with everyone else around the room watching him play video games with Mack or watching his favorite movies.

Fitz was glad to have everyone paying so much attention to him after spending most of his time at the Playground in the background, but he was surprised by how much work seemed to have been put into this day. His favorite movies and games had been stacked neatly by the tv, so that they wouldn't have to search for anything. Fitz's favorite snacks had appeared in the common room. Simmons had premade his favorite sandwich for lunch. Everything was perfect and more than he could ever had expected being done for him.

Later, everyone was getting ready to go to bed, long after the cake had been cut and devoured, "Happy Birthday" been sung, and gifts opened (gifts including a stuffed monkey and a robotic dog).

Fitz pulled Skye aside and brought her out of earshot of everyone else. "Who planned the fuss?" He asked.

Skye chuckled at the odd question. "Coulson did."

"Why?" Skye was saddened by how truly confused and surprised he seemed when he asked that question.

"Because you're his kid, and he wanted to make you feel especially wanted on your birthday."

"No, you're his kid. You're the one he typically does this kind of craziness for." Skye's heart sank a bit more at her sort-of-brother's words.

"He's always seen you as his son, and Simmons as his daughter. He's just a bit more obvious with me because I didn't grow up with real parents. With you and Jemma, he doesn't want to make you guys feel like he's trying to take your real parents' place, or make you feel like you have to choose who to consider your 'real' parents, so he typically tries to be more subtle with you two." Skye paused to gauge his reaction. Tears were forming in his eyes. "I'm a field agent, so I'm more likely to get seriously hurt than you are, but when you did get hurt . . ." Skye trailed off, Fitz's coma was a difficult subject for all of them. "You didn't see him sitting with or crying while he watched the surveillance feed when you were in a coma. You didn't hear him curse that lack of more GH-325 the day you went into your coma. You didn't hear him curse himself for wanting to subject you to that stuff. Fitz, you're just as much of Coulson's kid as I am. You're my big brother."

The tears were now falling down his cheeks, but he was not ashamed of crying in front of his baby sister. He just hugged her until the tears stopped.


	6. Sick

**Continuation of the prompt from The Little Roguex. "An overprotective Phil and Fitzsimmons chapter because assuming Fitzsimmons cannot contact their families much now for fear of putting them in danger they would eventually feel jealous that Phil favors Skye over everyone else. Like Phil would bend over backwards and deal with tons of messy alien stuff for Skye yet Fitzsimmons cannot even get a goldfish or a dog. It is obvious that Skye is the favorite child and no matter how strong Fitzsimmons are it has to still hurt them."**

 **This one's focused on Simmons. I got this idea in my head of what would happen if the team doctor was the one who was sick or hurt, and it just kind of fit.**

Simmons woke up and ran straight for the bathroom. She barely made it before she began throwing up. She wasn't sure what was causing it, but she hadn't been this sick in a long time. Jemma sat on the bathroom floor for a few minutes too weak to move very far from the toilet. Eventually when she got her strength back up she headed for the common room to get a drink of water. She knew how important it was that she stay hydrated.

She had just made it to the kitchen went she felt the vomit coming again. Coulson saw her out of the corner of his eye, and he quickly grabbed the trash can and brought it over to her. He walked with her over to a chair and made her sit down.

"Water or tea?" Coulson asked after making sure she was comfortable, or at least comfortable as she could be when she was constantly throwing up.

"Tea, sounds amazing." Simmons said as normally as she could but it came out as more of a moan. Coulson expected no different from the young British scientist. He also gave her some saltine crackers, and immediately started making chicken noodle soup, one of the few things that he actually _could_ cook.

After Coulson had given her a bowl of chicken soup, that was surprisingly good, he walked Jemma back to her bunk. He held her hair back when she threw up again on arrival.

He got her into her bed and tucked her in with a makeshift puke bucket, and turned to leave so he could let her sleep.

"Will you stay?" He barely heard her voice, it was so weak and scratchy.

"Of course." He walked over to her desk and pulled the chair to the side of her bed where he sat and held her hand until she managed to fall asleep. Coulson was extremely surprised, but touched by the request. He had overheard Skye and Fitz talking on Fitz's birthday a week ago, and had been extremely worried that Simmons thought the same thing: that Coulson didn't care as much about her as he did Skye.

Simmons did think that Coulson favored Skye over the rest of them and it hurt her, maybe that was even part of why she took Skye having powers the way she did, but it was little moments like this where Coulson showed her that he cared about her, that made it worth it. Simmons had two PhD's. She was the team's go-to doctor, and she was a _SHIELD_ agent for goodness sake. Jemma shouldn't need someone to take care of her when she got sick. Coulson would have been justified in giving her the day off and letting her fend for herself, but here he was. He had made her tea and soup, and now he was sitting by her side watching over her like he would with Skye.

Her sleep was deep but fitful. She was shivering under the pile of blankets that Skye had put on her, and her head was burning. Fitz had come in to check on her temperature and it was far too high.

Coulson had a bucket of cool water and rags sitting beside him brought by May. He kept dabbing at her forehead trying to cool her down.

Simmons eventually woke up from her less than restful sleep when she felt the need to vomit again. Coulson gently pushed her into a sitting position and handed her puke bucket.

May tied back the girl's hair and offered her some medicine which she took without a fuss.

"Have you eaten at al today, sir?" Jemma asked softly, her voice still scratchy and painful from all the vomiting.

Coulson neglected to answer her question.

"Sir if you don't take care of yourself-"

He cut her off. "You're my priority."

The sincere words made her fell a lot better, not health wise but definitely emotionally. She could no longer think that she was less loved than the others because here was Agent Coulson, the director of SHIELD, ignoring his own wellbeing to comfort her when she was sick.

"I'm not going to get any better if I'm worried about you not taking care of yourself." Jemma added puppy eyes to her pleading, and he left begrudgingly.

Jemma was left alone with May who sat down in the seat Coulson had just previously occupied and took the young girl's hand.

"Are you feeling any better?" May asked softly reaching up her other hand to run through her loose brown ponytail.

"A little bit." She said with a weak smile.

"Lie back down and try to get some more sleep." May put her hand on her little girl's side and helped lie back down.

Jemma slowly rolled onto her side with her back to May. May moved to sit on the edge of Jemma's bed and began to rub small circles on her back while singing a Chinese lullaby.

"Good night little one. Get some good rest." The older agent whispered to Simmons's sleeping form when she had finished the lullaby. "And get better."

Skye watched the exchange from the doorway to Jemma's room and took comfort in knowing that both Fitz and Simmons had felt the same parental love from Coulson and May that she often enjoyed.

They deserved it more than anyone.


	7. Dinner

**Prompt from BlackSkyeDensiWidow. Lincoln and Skye are cooking at, and it all turns into a huge food fight.**

 **This thought makes me happy, and it also seem very likely to happen at some point with those two.**

Lincoln had been feeling a bit like the odd man out. He was new, and he had powers, so he made the others a bit uneasy. Skye understood how that felt, she had been the odd man out at SHIELD before, twice even. Once when she was the tag-a-long hacker on the Bus and again when she started making earthquakes.

So she had suggested making everyone a nice meal. If there was one thing everyone on the base loved, it was food, but they rarely, if ever, had a chance to sit down and enjoy a home cooked meal. Because who had the time for it when they were fighting a war with powered people and being kidnapped by psychopaths?

They had spent an hour deciding on what to make before deciding to make steak, mashed potatoes, salad, Jell-O pudding, potato salad, baked beans, corn bread, macaroni and cheese with bacon, macaroni salad, funeral potatoes, deviled eggs, Italian sodas, and to top it all off, they were making apple pie and devil's food cake. It sounded like a lot of food for just the ten of them, but they could eat a lot, and if they didn't eat it all they could give the rest to the other agents.

Skye and Lincoln woke up early the next morning and got started, knowing that it was going to be a _long_ day, but they were determined to get it done and hopefully have a good time doing it. Unfortunately they had far _too_ good of a time doing it.

They had been working hard and were very focused on cooking for several hours. Skye was mixing several things at once only one of which was in the mixer, the rest she was using her powers on. Lincoln had started boiling water for the macaroni, the hard boiled eggs, and the potatoes, both mashed and otherwise, using the stove and his powers. The funeral potatoes were in the oven, but since the crust of the pie and the apples needed to be cooked at different temperatures, Lincoln was forced to pay extra attention to heating that one.

If someone unfamiliar with super powers had walked in on this, they would have checked themselves into an institution due to the steaks that were currently floating with little bolts of electricity between them and the counter top. Even Coulson who had experience with a lot of powered people, walked in, saw what was happening, and slowly and silently walked back out without either of them noticing.

It was another hour before things got out of hand. It was almost time to serve dinner, the team would probably start showing up in about two minutes. Skye and Lincoln had just barely started to work on the devil's food cake.

They were in a bit of a rush to put it together, Lincoln dropped a bag of flour on his way to put it back in the cupboard and it ended up covering him head to toe. Skye tried to hold in her laugh, but she failed miserably.

"Oh you think that's funny do you?" Lincoln said dipping his finger into the mixer and scooping up a bit of batter.

Skye started backing away from him knowing what he was trying to do, but she still couldn't help but laugh at him. Suddenly he lunged at her wiping the batter on her face.

"Oh, now it's on!" Skye yelled.

Neither of them noticed the team come in. They sat watching the two powered people fling cake batter at each other. May kicked Hunter under the table after he laughed so loud they thought the two would finally notice their presence, but who could blame him, Lincoln had wrapped his arms around her in a big bear hug effectively covering her with flour. Still they didn't notice.

And they continued not to notice until Lincoln flung some batter at Skye, but missed.

And hit _May._

Everyone immediately went still and quiet, waiting and watching for how May would react.

She slowly slid her finger against her cheek, wiping the batter off without ever taking her eyes off of Lincoln, who gulped in fear. They all watched anxiously as she grabbed a plastic spoon, scooped up some Jell-O salad and flung it at him.

It hit him right between the eyes.

Everyone seemed to move at once diving for the food. Skye grabbed the mixing bowl still halfway full of batter and put it on Fitz's head as he flung a deviled egg at Simmons. Simmons had sent some macaroni salad flying toward Coulson, who targeted Hunter with mac and cheese. Hunter aimed a bit funeral potatoes at Mack, and Mack in turn flung some at Bobbi. Bobbi shook her head at her friend's antics before joining and throwing a square of corn bread at Lincoln. Lincoln reached for the mashed potatoes to fling at Skye. May had taken to using human shields as she aimed food at various people. Koenig stood in the corner dodging the food, looing horrified at the mess.

This continued until about half the food was strewn across the room and the team. Everyone was laughing, even May. It was not the same high pitched laugh they had once heard over comms on a mission, but a sweeter sound that didn't sound nearly as forced.

After a few minutes of debating the group decided that the food that had remained inside its original dishes was still edible, so the group sat and ate the delicious meal that Skye and Lincoln had prepared for them.

It wasn't what Skye had had in mind to help the group get to know Lincoln, but it had most definitely succeed.

Who needed devil's food cake for anything other than a food fight anyway?


	8. Nightmare

**Prompt from Daisy and seconded by SwifteForeverAndAlways. Bobbi manages to convince Hunter to sleep in his own bed for a few hours but while he's gone she has a nightmare about what Ward did to her, and May and/or Coulson come to comfort her.**

Bobbi supposed she was lucky. Not about the whole getting kidnapped, tortured, and shot part, that completely sucked. But, how many people could say that their ex-husband knowingly and willingly walked into a trap to rescue them? Not many.

And still her ex-husband sat by her side in the med room of the base. Hunter had not left her side since he found her, and that had been _days_ ago. He only ate when Simmons threatened to hook him up to an IV, and she knew that chair he was in was not nearly comfortable enough to get a good night's sleep in.

"Hunter, I'm stable, and have been stable for a few days. I am through with my surgeries." Bobbi began, and Hunter met her gaze, curiously. " _Go to sleep._ Go to your room, you will find something called a bed. Lie down on it, with your head on the soft fluffy thing, it's called a pillow, and _go to sleep._ "

"I'm good here, Love." Hunter mumbled, grabbing her hand. "She may be stubborn and not want to admit it, but my wife needs me."

"You don't have a wife." Despite her comment, she smiled wide. It was nice to hear him refer to her like that still. They had been divorced for years, with a hook up every once in a while, but it had been a while since anything really serious happened between them.

"My fiancé needs me then."

Bobbi found that she lost temporary control of her mouth and lungs, which might not have been the best thing for someone in her condition.

"Did you just propose to me?" She asked when she regained her ability to speak.

"That would depend on your answer."

"Still think I'm a demonic beast from Hell?" She asked with a small smile playing on her lips.

"I think all demonic beasts are from Hell, and yes, I do still think that and will probably never _stop_ thinking that." He paused and smiled at her. "But you're _my_ demonic beast from Hell." He the still bruised knuckles of her right hand.

"My old ring is in the top drawer of my nightstand."

"Nice to know you're sentimental, Bob, but I got you a new one."

Hunter pulled out a black velvet ring box. Inside was a silver ring with an infinity sign at the top. The two holes in the sign were each filled with a diamond. She noticed that something was inscribed on the inside of the ring, but she wasn't able to read it because she was still on a lot of pain medication.

"What's it say?" She asked him.

He blushed slightly. "First is the worst, second is the best."

She laughed. "One, that's incredibly goofy. Two that's long. How much did that inscription cost?" He ignored her concerned look and slid the ring onto her finger.

"It cost letting Mack laugh at me. I had him make it." Her smile widened, if that was possible. The ring felt even more special now.

"Oh, and by the way, don't think this has gotten you off the hook. You still need to go sleep in a real bed." She attempted to give him a pointed look, but her giddy smile from their previous exchange kind of ruined it. "You're stressing me out. Get some sleep, and eat something while you're at it."

Hunter sighed, he knew his _fiancé_ well enough to know that he was not going to win this argument.

"Ok, but only if you get some more sleep while I'm gone, and send someone to get me if anything happens." She nodded in response, and her ex-husband turned fiancé leaned down to kiss her before slowly walking out the door. He looked back at her several times, hoping she would change her mind, but she just kept shooing him.

Bobbi felt his absence very strongly from the moment he stood up from the chair, but knew he would be better off if he got some real rest in a real bed, and he would be back as soon as he woke up.

She felt herself drift off to sleep and realized another reason why she needed Hunter by her side. Bobbi hadn't had nightmares while he had been by her side. She felt safe, but now he was gone and the nightmares had free rain.

The room was dark, and the only thing she could hear was manic laughter. _Ward,_ she thought. Bobbi looked around trying to find him. A flash of light revealed needles and syringes. Bobbi felt her breathing and her heart rate speed up. She heard a gunshot, but she didn't feel it rip through her body, in that far too familiar feeling. Then she saw where the bullet _had_ lodged itself.

Hunter was bleeding out in the doorway. She was about to run toward him, but was stopped when powerful chains wrapped around her body.

"Bobbi, Bobbi listen to me." The voice was familiar, maybe they could help. "Bobbi you need to wake up."

Her eyes opened to see May standing over her.

"You were having a nightmare. Do you want to talk about it?" She asked in a voice softer than she knew the agent was even capable of.

Bobbi shook her head and sat up as much as she could. "No."

"Do you want us to go get Hunter?"

"No, let him sleep. He needs it. This is the first time he's really slept in far too long."

"Do you want me to stay with you?"

Bobbi nodded, and May took a seat in the chair Hunter typically occupied. They were silent for a little while. It felt weird to Bobbi to have May being mother hen like to her. That side of her was typically hidden and reserved mainly for Skye and FitzSimmons.

"I was in a dark room full of needles. Ward was there, but I couldn't see him. Hunter was dying from a gunshot wound, but I was chained up and couldn't get to him."

May grabbed a tablet from a nearby table and brought up the surveillance footage from twenty minutes ago and handed it to Bobbi. It showed Hunter going to the kitchen, eating, and then walking to his bunk.

"He's okay, and you will be too. You just need to give yourself some time." Bobbi handed the tablet back to May. "You can't expect yourself to be automatically okay after a traumatic experience like that, no matter how well trained you are."

May continued to sit by her side until Hunter came back from his nap. She had decided not to mention the ring, knowing that those two would probably want to keep it a secret from just a little while longer.

 **So this kind of turned into more of a Hunting Bird chapter rather than an overprotective Coulson or May chapter, but I'm not really sorry. Maybe a little sorry, but very much.**


	9. Scars

**Prompt from McKenna C. The team, especially Coulson and May, finding out that Skye was abused by one or more foster families. Maybe Skye has a nightmare or Lincoln sees some scars. But the team won't let it drop, and she finally has to tell them. Then Coulson, May, and Lincoln comfort her and the others make plans for revenge.**

 **I have never been in an orphanage or foster care. The only foster parents I ever really knew were angels, so if this isn't accurate, I'm sorry, but I wouldn't really know, so please don't hate me.**

 **Ah, yes, abuse. Attempt one at making you cry.**

 **~_~AOS~_~**

 **WARNING THIS CHAPTER CONTIANS CHILD ABUSE!**

 **~_~AOS~_~**

It had been a crazy few days. Alien technology and artifacts seemed to be popping up everywhere. Skye could hardly remember ever coming back to the base being so empty, but almost everyone had been sent out into the world collecting alien crap. Skye, Lincoln and Hunter were the first team to get back.

But they were not unscathed. Lincoln had a broken collar bone, Hunter had a cracked femur, and Skye had a long gash starting at her hip and crossing her lower back ending an inch from her other side, and she had lost a lot of blood, but to do Lincoln's incomplete studies in medicine, she was bleeding less.

Simmons and a few other doctors came with a stretcher and took her from Lincoln who was currently holding her hand and causing her to float with her stomach facing down. He moved her onto the stretcher and followed the group of doctors back to the med center. One doctor stayed behind to care for Hunter's leg.

When the larger group reached the med center Jemma immediately had them begin to cut open the girl's shirt. Simmons then went on autopilot cleaning the wound and surrounding skin, stitching the wound closed so it would heal faster, putting medication on it and covering it with a bandage and tape.

It was only when she finished working that she noticed that Lincoln was staring at Skye's back. He looked confused and horrified, by what he saw. That didn't make sense to Simmons, he had been a med student. And why would he be confused by her wound? He had been with her.

Then she realized he wasn't looking at his girlfriend's fresh injury. He was looking at the rest of her back.

Immediately she tried to think back to any mission, any mission at all that would explain it. Simmons didn't want to imagine that anything as horrible as what she was seeing had been done to her before SHIELD. Skye had only been twenty four- twenty five according to her parents, when she had joined.

But nothing could explain what she saw when she looked just a little bit closer.

"What happened to her?" Lincoln asked in the smallest voice Simmons had ever heard him use. Usually he sounded confident, even when she knew he wasn't, or sounded joyful.

Now he sounded broken.

He could laugh through his own injuries, and in non-life-threatening cases, other's injuries, but no one could laugh at this.

They were both so distracted that they didn't hear Coulson enter.

"You guys look like the situation's bad. Is Skye going to be ok?" He asked walking toward them slowly.

"I don't know if she's ever been ok." Simmons didn't look away from her friend.

"What do you mean Simmons? How badly is she hurt?" Coulson pressed, walking closer.

Simmons finally turned as if she had just noticed her presence and had been speaking to herself rather than in response to his question.

"Sorry, sir, the lower gash on her back will take some time to heal, and she's currently unconscious, but she'll be fine."

"Then why don't you think she's okay? Why are you two standing over her like she's dying?" Coulson was confused and worried.

Simmons hesitated. "I don't she wants anyone to know, but this isn't something I can hide for her. You need to look at the rest of her back."

"The rest of her . . ." Coulson trailed off as he saw what the other two had been looking at.

Working at SHIELD had brought him into contact with a lot of horrible people, showed him a lot of horrible things, but nothing could have prepared him for this.

His little girl was lying on a hospital bed with a large gash across her lower back with blood still seeping through the bandage, but that was nothing compared to the horror covering the rest of her back.

Nothing could have prepared any of them for the mental and physical torture riddled across Skye's back.

Scars littered her back. They varied in size, width, depth, and age.

Then he noticed the patterns some of the scars made. They spelled out words.

 _Loser._

 _Freak._

 _Unwanted._

There were others, but Simmons couldn't read them. Some words had been . . . cut . . . into her skin above others, making some illegible.

The image would not leave any of their minds for a long, long time.

 _Who could do that to another person?_ Lincoln thought to himself. _Who could do that to_ Skye?

Skye woke up a few hours later and immediately felt the change in dynamic between the three. They treated her like she was fragile, and she was not liking it.

"What happened?" She demanded of the three. She turned to look at Coulson and Simmons. "You didn't treat me this carefully even after Quinn shot me."

"We didn't see your back then." Simmons couldn't meet her eyes.

Skye breathed sharply knowing what they were referring to. "You saw those." She wished she could say it as a question and have them answer no. Skye had hidden those for years. Few people had ever been allowed to see them. Fewer still knew the stories behind them.

"Who- who did that to you?" Lincoln asked gently reaching for her hand. She pulled away, not rudely, it was more like a flinch, but after a second she was calm enough to reach for his still outstretched hand.

She shook her head. She couldn't answer that.

"Skye please, just tell us." Coulson spoke softly. His voice was caring and it soothed her. The topic of her scars made it harder to trust people, especially ones she called family.

"We want to help you Skye. We just want to make sure you're alright and that you know you can trust us and tell us things." Simmons said.

"We're not going to leave you, Skye. Ever." Lincoln said.

Skye's eyes snapped up at the door opening. May and Fitz came in.

"Oh, you're awake." Fitz smiled coming to give her a small hug while trying not to hurt her.

"Why's everyone so serious?" May asked looking around the room.

"Yeah, she's awake and going to be fine in just a few weeks. What's there to be so upset about?" Fitz asked smiling at the group.

"You can tell us Skye." Coulson reiterated.

"Tell us what?" May questioned.

"Sit down." Skye said squeezing her eyes shut. The team complied. She looked toward May and Fitz. The tears started at the same time as the story and continued at a rapid pace. "I have a lot of scars from my time in the system."

"They're not just scars Skye." Simmons said with tears gathering in her eyes. Fitz looked between them curiously.

"No, they're not. Um, I was seven-" Lincoln and Coulson winced at the number. Simmons her tears fall. "The first time one of my foster parents carved something into my back." She heard a sharp intake of breath from where Fitz was sitting. "I had broken a dish that I was washing. It had been so hot that- that I dropped it, and it shattered. There were glass shards everywhere." Skye was squeezing her eyes shut again, and breathing heavily.

"I was bare foot, so when I went to get a broom to try to clean it up before they could notice several shards stuck in my feet. I grabbed the broom and started cleaning it up but Mr. Lucas came down to find out what the noise was, and he wasn't happy. He grabbed a towel and a bigger piece of glass and made it into a knife. He pulled off my shirt and threw me to the ground on my stomach. He dragged the shard through my back and spelled the word 'stupid.' When I screamed he just pushed the makeshift knife harder. Then to top it all off he took the towel and whipped my feet so that the shards dug in deeper." Skye could feel the pain as if it was fresh as she told the story. She gripped Lincoln's hand harder as she talked and he brought her hand to his lips. "It was a long time before I managed to get off the floor. I finished sweeping up the glass and doing the dishes, then cleaned up my blood.

"I managed to walk to 'my room' and started pulling the glass out of my feet. I bit my pillow to stop myself from screaming. After that it became almost commonplace. I would make a mistake and he would carve my back. I don't know when his wife found out about it, but then on the nights she came home drunk she would do it too.

"That was one of the times I was grateful I was moved so often, but it wasn't long before people noticed what the Lucas's had done."

Coulson's first thought was "Good at least they did something about it," but there was something in Skye's eyes that said that was not the case.

"A few of the older girls at St. Agnes noticed and told a few of the older boys, who thought it sounded like fun. From then on I knew whenever the older kids had had a bad day because they would gag me and tie me up and carve more words into my back. Loser, freak, unwanted, monster, the list went on. When I was eight I started cracking jokes and being sarcastic, thinking that maybe it I was funny they wouldn't want to hurt me as much, but it didn't make any difference. By the time I was ten I stopped speaking completely. It was easier that way, and it wasn't like I had had anyone to talk to anyway.

"It continued for a few years until I became one of the oldest kids in the orphanage. It took me a couple years of not being picked on to use my voice again. Most of the kids in the orphanage were afraid of me so when I saw anyone picking on the smaller kids I yelled at them. I think it helped the lingering pain to know that I could keep it from happening to those kids. I started being better friends with little kids than anyone even close to my age."

"Do the Lucas's still live near St. Agnes? Because I can have the plane there in an hour." May said.

The thought of May treating them like she had Quinn made Skye laugh. It was a welcome sound for everyone in the room.

May grabbed Skye's free hand and ran her other hand through the girl's hair. Coulson kissed her forehead and kept a comfortingly close presence.

"I could make a few Heretic's Forks with some adjustments. For each of those older boys." Fitz said.

"I'm not sure I want to know what a Heretic's fork is." Skye said.

"Probably not." Simmons shook her head. She looked up at Skye for the first time since the story began. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry."

"C'mere." Skye opened her arms to the best of her ability and Simmons hugged her.


	10. Sister

**Prompt from SwifteForeverAndAlways. Something or another happens and Bobbi acts like a big sister to Skye and FitzSimmons because she really does view them as her younger siblings.**

It was supposed to be an easy op. Go in, grab the object, scan the area, and get out. They had no reason to suspect any other presence.

Ward wasn't supposed to be there. He wasn't supposed to have a team.

No one was supposed to get hurt.

They had tracked down another Obelisk, they all refused to call them Diviners. They called in Skye because she was the only one capable of touching it without being turned to stone, so far as the team knew. FitzSimmons came so they could design a case for it and also scan to see if they could find any clues as to who left the Obelisk.

But, it turned out that Ward had found it too, and the team only beat them there by a few minutes. They had barely even entered the cave where the Obelisk had been hidden when Ward and his new team cornered them.

Ward had a team of all fighters and no one to defend. Skye was the only agent cleared for combat, and she had to protect FitzSimmons.

She thought about using her powers but wasn't sure she could without making the cave collapse in on them all. Skye cursed at the small space, but more than that she cursed Ward. She had to try.

"Don't touch the Obelisk." Ward warned his team. "And don't let Skye here, get to it."

Ward smiled at her and ran his hand down her arm giving her the chills.

"Don't touch me Ward." She practically growled.

"You used to like it when I did that." He tilted his head at her.

"Yeah, before you showed your true colors, Nazi."

"I'm not a Nazi." He defended weakly.

Skye closed her eyes. She could hear the rock all around them buzzing with energy, but she tried to tune that out. She needed to focus on a certain frequency. Before she could isolate it she heard Simmons scream. Immediately, she turned to see one of Ward's men holding the Obelisk with tongs, and he was holding it less than an inch from Simmons's face.

"Tell him to let her go." Skye said to Ward. "You've done enough to her."

"Have I?" Ward had a sadistic gleam in his eye.

Skye finally isolated Ward's cells' vibrations. He fell to the ground, gasping for air.

"Let FitzSimmons go back to the plane." She spoke sternly. Skye eased up on him just enough for him to speak.

"Do as she says." Ward's voice was weak, and the man with the Obelisk backed away from Simmons.

"Go back to the plane." Skye said to Fitz.

"But you-" Fitz tried to argue.

"I'll be fine. Take Simmons and go!" She ordered, and Fitz finally obeyed.

Skye released her hold on Ward as soon as she was sure FitzSimmons were far enough away.

The tongs Ward's lackey held the Obelisk with fell apart, and the Obelisk fell on his foot. He began to turn to stone.

"What's happening, Boss?" Ward refused to look at him.

Skye moved before Ward even had a chance to react. She kicked him in the nose and dove toward where the Obelisk had fallen and grabbed it. She saw the familiar red-orange glow and rolled toward another member of Ward's team. He was stone in less than a minute.

Finally she was close enough to the exit. She started the rocks falling between her and Ward, trapping him inside.

From outside, where FitzSimmons were sitting by the plane, they could see the mountain starting to fall. Rocks were tumbling down everywhere.

"No!" Fitz yelled. "Skye!"

"What is she doing she's still in there?" Simmons had tears welling up in her eyes.

They saw a figure running toward them. A rock fell nearly crushing the figure, but she blew it apart and kept running.

Fitz breathed a sigh of relief. Skye had made it out.

When she reached the plane, Simmons ran toward her, wrapping her arms around her friend. Skye had to hold one arm, the arm holding the Obelisk, far away from Simmons, but Skye hugged her back with her other arm.

Fitz held out the container he had made, and Skye dropped the Obelisk inside. After he closed the box, Skye gestured for him to join the hug, and he complied.

All three of them were visibly shaken up, and they still were when they returned to the base.

Bobbi was the first one to come across the little group.

"This wasn't a combat mission. What happened?"

"Ward showed up." Skye started. Bobbi's face darkened.

"He had a new team." Simmons continued.

"Skye collapsed the cave on them." Fitz added.

"And herself." Simmons mumbled.

"Did they make it out?" Bobbi questioned.

They all knew what answer she wanted, they wanted it too, but Skye didn't want to lie. "I don't know. I counted seven ways to get out. I blocked off the way I went, but I didn't want to stick around long enough to close the others after I started the collapse."

Bobbi nodded. There was silence for only a moment. "C'mon, you guys need some cheering up." Bobbi said looking between the three of them. "I'm taking you somewhere."

Skye and FitzSimmons looked confused.

"Ok," Skye said hesitantly. "Where to?"

"It's a surprise." She looked at their faces. Each held a mix of confusion and sadness. "You'll like it I swear. C'mon."

They followed Bobbi out to the garage and into a van.

"Where are you going? Those three have a debriefing to go to." An agent said as they climbed into the car.

"Oh, well. I'm taking them. They can be debriefed later. Coulson will understand." The agent still didn't look convinced. "I can _call_ the director if I need to." The agent backed off.

"Um, there's a dangerous piece of alien metal that will either turn people into stone or give them powers on the plane still." Skye pointed out as the agent left.

Bobbi pursed her lips. "I'll call Mack and have him grab it on the way out."

~_~AOS~_~

Skye and FitzSimmons did love Bobbi's surprise location. It was a mom and pop ice cream parlor about a half hour's drive away from the base. They had a hundred flavors and didn't mind giving a sample of each and every one.

The small group talked and laughed until they forgot all about Ward.


	11. Broken

**Prompt from BlackSkyeDensiWidow. Simmons comes back from the stone a little broken and closed to herself and Fitz is worried about her so he invites her to one of the sleepovers they used to do and she opens up to Fitz . . .**

 **Oh, good. I enjoy torturing innocent characters.**

When the team finally got Simmons back, they could hardly call her Simmons.

They had said their goodbyes to sweet little goody- goody Jemma when Ward dropped her and Fitz into the middle of the ocean. They had started to get her back, but now . . . Now they had to say goodbye to even the colder, more afraid Simmons. Gone was the sister, daughter, and best friend/maybe more that they had all known.

When she came back she was fragile.

Light seemed to hurt her.

Darkness terrified her.

She was pale.

She flinched at the slightest touch, like it burned her.

She wouldn't talk to anyone, sometimes it was like she wasn't even there.

She wouldn't eat.

She wouldn't drink.

She was always shivering.

On the rare occasion that she slept, she woke up shaking uncontrollably.

Her eyes had never been so hollow. Where they had once been full of happiness and curiosity, now they held no emotion.

When they hooked her up to an IV to make sure she was getting enough calories, she screamed. It was the first time she had opened her mouth since they found her.

Jemma was broken now. They all thought, but it was worse on the inside. Jemma wasn't even sure she was conscious or even alive, but she was, which only made it worse.

They kept her in a medical room for a while, but the best the doctors could do was chalk it all up to trauma and tell Coulson to call Andrew. That diagnosis had not been taken well. Skye had shouted at them to try harder, to help her like she had helped everyone else on the base at one point or another, but at the end of the day, trauma was the only diagnosis they could offer.

Fitz never left her side, not even in her therapy sessions. When he had gotten up to leave, Jemma had grabbed his hand, keeping him beside her. It had been her first voluntary movement, so Andrew had allowed Fitz to stay. Progress was progress.

Before she had been so full of life, but now it seemed she was devoid of all her hope and will. And what could any of them do about that?

Skye and May wished for an enemy to hit, but of course the enemy was a non-living, liquefying rock. Not much they could really beat up for revenge in this situation. No matter how hard they wished.

Not like that would really help Jemma anyway.

After a few weeks Fitz got her to drink. Then he got her to eat. Slowly she became a little healthier, at least physically.

The day he got her to talk again, the team talked about throwing a party, but figured something that big would make her retreat into herself again. Besides, she wouldn't talk to anyone except Fitz, and she only spoke in monosyllabic answers.

But at least she was getting a little better. It killed all of them to see her go through this. They still didn't know what had caused it, of course they knew it had happened because of that _thing_ , but they had no way of knowing what that stone thing had done to her.

Fitz wasn't sure what made him think of it, but he thought it was a good idea. It might make her feel a bit more normal.

In the academy, after they finally came together, the two of them would have a movie night every once in a while.

"Simmons?" Fitz said gently.

She sensed his hesitation, so she looked up to let him know that she was listening.

"Would you like to have a movie night tonight? I can get everybody to leave us alone in the common room if you'd like."

"Yes." She said. Then she did something that had become quite foreign.

Jemma smiled.

A few hours later the two of them sat on the couch watching the Lion King. It was one of Jemma's favorites, and she seemed happy, well as happy as you can be while watching Mufasa die, until the end.

By the end of the movie Simmons had curled up to Fitz, and he thought she had fallen asleep. Her head was on his lap and her knees were curled up to her chest. Simmons had gotten comfortable with Fitz again over the past few weeks, but this was the most of her normal self she had shown.

"It was dark."

Fitz's eyes widened as he looked down toward her face. Tears were welling up in the young scientist's eyes.

"It was like looking into a void. I thought I had gone completely blind, but then I started seeing things. Horrible things. Everyone was dead, Fitz, _everyone_. Lincoln, Mack, Hunter, Bobbi, May, Coulson, Skye . . . you." Her sobs grew with every word.

Fitz got through his shock, and placed a hand on his crying friend's shoulder. She continued to cry for a long time, and Fitz just held her.

She spoke again. "You were all covered in blood, cut up, and then you had been thrown aside like trash . . . and I- I stood there," her voice broke. "I stood over all of you, and I was holding a- a bloody knife like I was the one who h-had killed you." Every time Simmons closed her eyes she saw it. Her own head was torturing her, _killing_ her.

Fitz's heart broke for her. He had no idea how to help, but he desperately needed to.

"Simmons," Fitz started. "You know we're all okay, and we're here for you. _I'm_ here for you."

"I love you, Fitz. I don't want to hurt you." She sat up and cried into his shoulder, and he pulled her onto his lap.

"You won't Jemma, I promise. I love you too."


	12. Hometown

**I don't know what I was expecting this chapter to be when I started, but I wasn't really expecting this. I'm sorry if this is a bit scattered I wrote it at a baseball game and the rest after midnight. I apologize in advance, but now you get to see the workings of my mind when I'm not functioning properly.**

 **I've been having a lot of Skye and Lincoln feels recently.**

 **I will get to your prompts after I get back from camp, but I have to pack and then leave.**

 **Thank you to Marvel-Tolkiem Fangirl for noticing my mistake in naming Taylor's power. She's telekinetic not telepathic. I was originally going to make her telepathic, and I guess I forgot to change that part.**

 _This takes place about two or three years after th_ _e season finale. Skye and Lincoln have been in a steady relationship for about one to two years._

Skye was not happy about this mission. She really wasn't, but she should have been thrilled. Coulson had called her, and said he needed her to take a break from the Caterpillars and come help the old team with the addition of Lincoln.

The only problem was _why_ she was needed. A gifted had been found at St. Agnes orphanage. Her name was Taylor.

When Skye got to the Playground she was struck by how much had changed. Skye hadn't realized just how long she'd been gone. She was greeted by Simmons running to hug her.

"Skye! I didn't know you were coming." Fitz said hugging her when Simmons eventually let her go.

"Coulson didn't tell you guys?" _He must not have told them where we're going either then._ Skye thought.

"What am I, chopped liver?" Lincoln asked from behind her.

"Of course not, Lincoln." Simmons gave him a hug as well then Fitz greeted him with a handshake.

"There's my girl," Coulson greeted.

He gave Skye a kiss on the forehead. He had always acted like her father but recently he had become more obvious about it and May had followed suit. Skye was pretty sure they had started dating but that hadn't admitted it.

"And Lincoln." He said with a smile.

"Hello sir." Lincoln greeted.

"You can call me Coulson." He told his daughter's boyfriend.

"Hello Coulson." Lincoln tried again and Coulson laughed. Skye just smiled at the awkward exchange.

"Alright, kids and Coulson, get on the Bus." May said. No one was sure when she had entered the room, but she patted Lincoln's shoulder and wrapped her arm around Skye, and they all started walking toward the Bus.

"Ow." Skye said dropping her bags. "Lincoln!"

"What? What'd I do?" He asked innocently, but with a guilty grin. Skye's dropped bags started floating toward the plane, and Lincoln stated running toward the Bus.

"I can carry my own bags." She said running after him. May laughed as she watched her sort-of-daughter chase her boyfriend.

~_~AOS~_~

"So where are we headed?" Jemma questioned as they stood in the meeting room. She was curious as to why Coulson had called Skye but not her . . . new team.

"Skye?" Coulson knew this was difficult for her but she had personal knowledge of where they were going and people there would trust her more than they would anyone else. It was a small town.

"My home town." She said with mock enthusiasm.

"Oh." Jemma said awkwardly, but everyone knew that she had just being more curious.

Lincoln knew she had a pretty bad childhood, but he didn't know much beyond that. Now he was beginning to think he wasn't alone in that.

~_~AOS~_~

"Mary Sue!" A voice called when the team had stopped at a gas station in the town where Skye grew up. "Mary Sue I know you can hear me! Mary Sue!"

Skye ignored her until she couldn't stand it anymore

"Hi Janie." Skye greeted. "How have you been?" She could feel her team's eyes on her.

"Oh, I've been alright. Heard a rumor that our prodigal girl had returned, and with a group of strangers." Janie had a look of distrust on her face when she referred to the rest of the group.

"News travels fast. Yeah they all wanted to see where I grew up. Meet some of my old friends." Skye shrugged casually despite how uncomfortable she really was.

"And who is this?" She smiled flirtatiously at Lincoln.

"I'm Lincoln, her fiancé." Skye hid her left hand in her pocket.

"Oh."

The uncomfortable conversation continued for a while before Janie looked down at her watch and said she had to leave. Skye attempted to look disappointed but failed.

"Fiancé?" Coulson questioned as soon as Janie was out of earshot.

Skye threw her hands up in a surrendering gesture. "Don't look at me, I'm as surprised as you are."

"Sorry, she seemed like the kind of person that wouldn't stop flirting if I said boyfriend."

"Well, you're not wrong." Skye replied.

"And would it really be so bad to be my fiancé?" Lincoln felt his jacket pocket grow heavier as he waited for her answer. It was only a second later that she answered but it felt like an eternity.

"No, no it wouldn't be so bad." She smiled putting her lips to his. "I don't have a ring though and not everyone here is as oblivious as Janie. Are we just going to tell them it's being resized?"

Lincoln nodded his agreement at the story.

"Of course this is a ridiculous town, so they're all going to judge you for not knowing my ring size." Skye smiled as she started walking toward the van. Lincoln chuckled nervously.

~_~AOS~_~

May drove the car to the orphanage where Skye had spent most of her early life, and where a possible gifted was currently living. As they passed buildings and parks, Skye told them what they were, who lived or worked there, and occasionally a story.

After just a few minutes of driving they reached the orphanage. It was a tall, old fashioned looking, brick building. To most people it would be beautiful, but Skye just saw it as a prison covered in ivy. May, Coulson, Skye, and Lincoln got out of the van and walked toward the building with Skye leading the way.

When they got to the doorway, Skye stopped. She had told herself when she left that she would never come back to this town especially not this building. But here she was. She had come with her family to help a little girl. Still she couldn't bring herself to open the door.

She felt Lincoln grab her hand and send small jolts of electricity into her hand, effectively calming her down. She reached up with her free hand to open the door and walk inside with her team following.

"Mary Sue Poots." A nun said coming up to the group.

"My name is Skye."

"If there was ever a child I thought would never come back, it was you." She continued as if Skye hadn't spoken. "Or one that I wouldn't want to come back."

May lunged toward the nun at the insult, but Skye grabbed her arm and pulled her back. The nun showed a look of disgust at May's action, but she was soon distracted by the pounding of three pairs of feet.

"No running!" The woman yelled. The pounding of feet continued.

"Get back here you little freak." A boy called after a girl.

The girl was only about seven years old. She curled herself into a ball beside the doorway and started crying.

"Andrew, leave her alone." Skye smiled at the slightly familiar voice. "She didn't do anything." An older girl about seventeen grabbed the boy's shoulder when they came into view.

"Yes, she did. You know she did. Why are you defending her? She's a freak." The boy against the boy's grip. " _She_ made that brush fly at me!"

"Taylor could not have thrown that brush at you. She was standing on the opposite side of the room. Taylor was on your right, the brush came from the left. How can you explain that?" The older girl reasoned.

"Telepath?" Lincoln whispered to the rest of the team.

"You two were the only other people in the room." The girl looked up, rolling her eyes. As she did, she saw a familiar face watching her interact with the younger boy.

"A little help, please?" She said.

"Andrew, is there some reason she would want to throw something at you? A reason you might like to share with Sister Anderson here?" Skye smiled down at the boy. He shook his head and went back upstairs. "You've grown, Jess."

"Well, you were gone, someone had take care of the little ones." She laughed.

" _You_ were a little one when I left." Skye's face turned serious. "So what really happened up there, Jess?"

Jessica was about to tell her but stopped when she noticed just how many people were in the hallway.

Skye turned to Sister Anderson. "Could you give us a minute? I want to catch up."

The nun gave Skye a last suspicious look before leaving the room.

"Jessica this is my family. You can trust them." Jessica toward May, Coulson, and Lincoln.

"You must be the fiancé that everyone's talking about." She said to Lincoln as Skye went to grab the little girl who still sat behind the door. "Except you're not really engaged. Just wanted Janie to stop flirting with you, and gaging her reaction to being your fiancé was an added bonus judging by the fact you're walking around her hometown with a diamond ring in your pocket."

Coulson looked over at Lincoln intently, and Lincoln's eyes widened at the girl. "How did you know?"

"Skye used to tell me that I was good at reading people."

Skye walked back toward the group carrying the scared little girl on her hip.

"I never knew you were so good with children, Skye." Lincoln laughed.

"I think Jess has been telling too many stories." Skye gave her a pointed glare.

"It gives the munchkins hope to know that there are people who care about other people, so, yeah, I made sure the little ones knew your name." Skye smiled at the teenager.

"Ok, cheeseball." Skye laughed.

"What happened?" May said trying to get back to the mission.

"This is going to sound a bit crazy. Taylor, here, is telekinetic." Jessica looked up at Skye to see if her hero thought she was crazy, but there was nothing but encouragement in her eyes, so Jessica went on. "When she gets scared or upset things start flying. Since it started she hasn't spoken a word. I think she's in like a constant state of shock or something. I've been trying to figure out how to help her. I even tried to hack SHIELD to get their help, but I'm not as good of a hacker as you are." Jess smiled. "I thought about taking her with me when I get booted next month, but I'm not sure if that would help or hurt. I just- I just don't know what to do. Why are you smiling?" She turned toward Coulson.

"We are SHIELD." Coulson stated simply. "We heard there was another gifted here."

"Another?" Jess asked.

"You need to spend less time around Simmons." Skye deadpanned.

"Another?" Jess repeated.

Skye sighed and looked around the room. She spotted a cup full of water and make shake sending out a perfectly tuned A. Jessica's eyes widened and Taylor relaxed a bit more in Skye's arms.

"So you can help her then?" Jessica asked hopefully.

"Yeah. We'll just take her back to the base with us. Skye and Lincoln have had a lot of practice training powered people. She'll be in really good hands." May spoke up smiling at her little girl and her, she mentally laughed, future fiancé.

"You're welcome to come with us. You're good at reading people and with some training I think you'd make a really good agent." Coulson looked from Skye to Jessica.

Skye looked toward her young friend. For a moment there was silence while she thought it over. No one felt the need to give her more information about SHIELD, since she had already looked for a way to get in contact with them.

"Can I go with you now, or do I have to wait until I turn eighteen and get to boot?" Jessica and Skye smiled at each other.

"Take Taylor and start packing both of your bags. We'll talk to the nuns." Coulson watched as Skye set the girl down. Jessica took Taylor's hand and the two girls went upstairs.

~_~AOS~_~

The nuns were a little too enthusiastic about getting rid of the two girls, so they were more than helpful with the paperwork, and it hadn't taken long for the two girls to pack up as they didn't have many belongings. Skye couldn't think of a mission that gone as smoothly as this one.

As the large group was walking back to the van where they had left FitzSimmons, a man came up to them carrying a bouquet of daisies.

"Hey, Skye and friends." He greeted handing Skye the flowers.

"Hey, Trevor. Thank you." Skye hugged the man.

"Why's your fiancé laughing?"

Skye turned to Lincoln. "Daisies were my favorite flower when I was little, and no, the irony is not lost on me." She turned back toward her old friend. "I met my biological parents and found out that my birth name was Daisy."

Trevor seemed to understand that it wasn't something she wanted to details about, so he changed the topic.

"So, can I see the ring?" He asked reaching for her hand.

"It's being resized." She smirked at Lincoln.

"How could you not know her ring size?" Trevor looked over at Lincoln in disbelief.

Luckily for Lincoln, Simmons got out of the car about then and whispered something to Coulson.

"Sorry to cut this reunion short, but we're needed elsewhere." Coulson told everyone.

The large group piled into the bus. Taylor was currently sitting on Jessica's lap because there were not enough seat belts.

"Can you drive faster so we can out of here without being stopped by anyone else?" Skye whined. May laughed at the girl and floored the gas.

 **I hope my post-midnight mind didn't kill you.**


	13. Infestation

**My house is full of flies, and I have an electric fly swatter. This chapter is not as random as it seems.**

 **I head off to camp in a few hours, so I won't be posting for a few days. I have the next several chapters written, and the next one is longer than this one. Just be aware that I will be continuing this story. I'm not abandoning it while I still have ideas or prompts.**

"Are these flies driving anyone else nuts?" Coulson said walking into the common area of the Bus, swatting at flies as he went.

No one was happy about the flies. FitzSimmons was currently trying to build something similar to an ICER bomb that would only affect the flies, but so far it hadn't worked.

The rest of the team sat in the common room attempting to watch tv, but were constantly swatting at flies.

One landed on Lincolns arm and out of frustration he electrocuted it, and it died. No one noticed except for May.

"How good is your aim?" She asked him while following a fly with her eyes.

For a second he was confused but quickly caught on. He watched the fly for a few seconds then sent a pulse of concentrated electricity through the air. It hit the fly and it fell to the ground. Skye laughed. She held her hand out and sent the dead fly hurtling toward the trash can. They all sat there watching their two powered team members kill and dispose of the flies. Eventually they got up and continued to exterminate the flies throughout the rest of the plane.


	14. Gunfire

**I watched 1x02 a couple of days ago and a certain line stuck out at me, and it's bothered me because I thought it went without an explanation, and I wrote this chapter before I realized I was just forgetful, but I'm posting this anyway, so I can try my hand at making you sad.**

 **I'm not anti-gun. I enjoy going to the shooting range and learning how to shoot and improve my aim. I will stand by the second amendment and defend my right to bear arms, but I also know the potential threat they pose when in the hands of someone who doesn't know how to use them properly. That being said this chapter is not meant as a political statement.**

 **I promise I will get around to your prompts, but my life picks annoying times to get busy.**

 **~_~AOS~_~**

 **WARNING THIS CHAPTER INCLUDES THE DEATH OF CHILD DUE TO LACK OF CARE AROUND GUNS!**

~_~AOS~_~

Bobbi sat the couch with the recliner, and Hunter sat beside her. On the couch directly facing the tv sat May, Coulson, and FitzSimmons, with Mack sitting between the two couches on the floor, and Skye sat in the chair with Lincoln on the floor leaning his back against her legs.

For once, the group had been gathered in this room without turning the tv on. They had been telling each other stories and laughing for hours now. There had been no major missions, and while they all knew a storm would be following the calm, they decided to take their chance to enjoy the calm while it lasted.

"You know," Simmons started. "Skye has a story that she hasn't told yet."

Skye looked genuinely confused. "What story would that be?"

"During our first case with you as a consultant. Remember?"

"The 0-8-4. Yeah, how could I forget? We blew a hole in the side of the bus." She laughed at the memory.

"Well, before that unpleasantness, Fitz and Ward were fighting in the lab," Skye nodded, her smile had faded. She knew where this was going. She had regretted her phrasing the second it came out of her mouth. "You said that we had 'seen even less gunfire than' you. When would you have seen it before SHIELD picked you up?"

Skye had hoped none of them would remember, and now she wished she could play it off or lie about it, but she was surrounded by spies trained to tell when someone was lying, plus they were family to her. She supposed they deserved to know a bit more about her past.

"I was nine years old at the time, and I was in a foster home, one of the worst ones I was ever in. There was a boy placed there with me." Skye paused to take a deep breath. "He was a year older than me and pretty much my only friend at the time."

"What was his name?" Fitz asked. He could tell his little sister was struggling with this story, but he couldn't help but be a little curious.

"Jacob, his name was Jacob. He had taken me to the park saying that he had found something really cool, and he wanted to show me something, but he said he couldn't show it to me at the apartment because our foster parents would be really mad that he had it." Tears had begun to well up in Skye's eyes, but she refused to let them fall. "We walked to the park together after school the next day, and he took me to the spot where he had hidden it."

She stopped again. Images of that say were going through her mind and the memories hurt. The sound of a gunshot echoed through her mind. Blood pooling in his mouth. His blood covering her clothes, hands, and face. His lifeless body lying in his arms.

She didn't think those images would ever leave her. The first few times she had ever fired her weapon, well, she had had nightmares featuring those images for weeks.

Lincoln reached up to grab her hand and his thumb rubbed circles on the space between her thumb and index finger, sending a small, soothing electrical pulse through her body.

"You don't have to tell us, Skye." Simmons said. "I didn't think it would be this bad." Her curiosity was strong, but not as strong as her love for her friend.

"No, it's okay." She said. "He had buried the gun under an exposed tree root. I had been terrified when he pulled it out, both of the weapon and what would happen if someone saw him with it. I looked around, and I didn't see anyone. He saw how afraid I was and tried to calm me down, telling me that we'd be ok. He said he was going to learn how to use it, so he could protect us from our mean foster family." Skye took a deep breath, forcing herself to continue the story. "He was trying to tell me more about the gun, and when he talked about how to make it fire, he- he accidentally pulled the trigger." Tears were streaming down her face, but Skye had given up trying to hold them back. "I was screaming for help. A man that had been sitting on a park bench with his back to us had come running after hearing the shot, but Jacob- Jacob was already dead before the man had gotten to us. I was still holding him when the police showed up. They called my social worker and drove me to the police station. I had his blood all over me and gunpowder residue on my hand, so originally they thought I had killed him. It didn't exactly help my case that I was a foster kid, but eventually they released me, and sent me back to the orphanage. I was still covered in blood. I was kind of unresponsive, I would only speak when absolutely necessary and I barely ate for about three months after that. There were a few kids that would try to make me laugh, but they never could. That was when they took me to my first therapist."

The room went silent, not even Hunter had something to say. Simmons felt guilty for asking and bringing the obviously painful memories up. Coulson wanted to attack something after hearing what she had gone through, but he was also a little happy because she had trusted this team enough to tell them that story.

Lincoln was the first to speak and got the attention off of Skye, for which she was grateful. "So, how did each of you end up with SHIELD anyway?"

 **Okay, so just in case anyone is as forgetful as me, the gunfire she was referring to in 1x02 was in the pilot episode when a guy from centipede is firing at Mike before being taken down by May.**


	15. Recruitment

**This kind of a continuation of Skye's gun story, but it can also be seen as separate. You guys deserved a lighter story after that last chapter.**

 **I don't read comics so if any of the characters recruitment stories are portrayed in the comics, please tell me how it actually happened, I'm curious.**

"So how did each of you end up at SHIELD anyway?" Lincoln asked the large group. Everyone had seen how _he_ ended up with SHIELD, he had been fighting against SHIELD on the side of the inhumans until Skye convinced him that Jiaying was the bad guy, not SHIELD, but he didn't know much about any of members of this team. Well except for Skye, and even that knowledge was limited.

Coulson was the first to answer. "I had been obsessed with Captain America from a very young age. I grew up with the stories." Everyone, even Lincoln knew of his obsession with Captain America. "It turns out that the man I had been getting my collectibles from was a former SHIELD agent. He had told someone he knew at the academy about me, and a recruiter showed up at my house. I was about twenty two years old." The original team had all heard this story, it wasn't all that uncommon for people to have recruiters show up at their door.

"Who's next?" Lincoln asked after a moment of silence.

"Maybe go in a circle?" Coulson suggested.

May glared at him, realizing she was next. "My mother was a high ranking agent in a Chinese government agency when I was growing up. She raised me with that skill set, but I hated that agency and knew working for SHIELD would piss her off, so I knocked on Fury's door. He wasn't director then, but he had enough connections and I had enough skills that he was able to get me into the academy. I was eighteen years old." She spoke without emotion and immediately after she finished she glared at Fitz. "Your turn."

"Um, I had a couple degrees in, um, engineering, and I, uh, had drawn up a lot of plans that drew attention. I was only seventeen. I got an odd device sent to my door. I spent about thirty seconds trying to open it. Inside was a phone and a phone number. I called and ended up at the academy."

"I was a seventeen year old girl with two PhD's and a lot of questions. I didn't have the resources to answer them, but SHIELD did, so when my science teacher gave me an address and a name, I went." Simmons shrugged.

Everyone looked to Mack. "I had a cousin who worked for SHIELD. He knew that I was good with cars and some other tech, and I was out of a job, so he sent me to the SHIELD garage. I was twenty something."

Bobbi sighed. "My neighbor ended up on SHIELD's radar for having an alien artifact. Things took a turn for the worst and I watched a SHIELD team fight him making sure that no one else in the neighborhood got hurt. I was eighteen years old. I wasn't sure what I wanted to do with my life, nothing I had ever come across had appealed to me until then. I walked outside after everything had calmed down a bit and stopped an agent asking how to get a job there. He called another man over to talk me, and he told me that if I got in the van with them, they would drop me off at a training facility."

Lincoln looked at her like she was insane. "You got in a van, with a bunch of secret agents that had just fought your neighbor."

"When you say it like that . . ." Bobbi looked down a little.

"Don't worry, Skye's is worse." Simmons laughed.

"Hey!" Skye exclaimed.

"Don't even try to deny it." Fitz joined in.

"Okay, Hunter, go." Coulson said with a smile at his kids' antics. He had to admit he was concerned about how Skye would tell her story.

"Um, I worked for STRIKE, but Coulson hired me as a mercenary with Hartley and Idaho. I liked you people, and I liked what we were doing here, so when Coulson offered me a permanent job, I took it. Simple as that. Now can we hear how Skye managed to become an agent without ever going to the academy?"

Everyone's eyes turned to Skye.

"Coulson kidnapped me." That was all she said.

"What?" Hunter and Lincoln both exclaimed.

"Don't leave it at that, Skye." Coulson said.

"I got Stockholm syndrome and stayed." She smirked at Coulson.

"Oh, come on what really happened?" Hunter questioned.

"I'm serious he and Ward showed up at my van, put a bag over my head, and took me on a roundabout route back to the BUS."

"Why?" Lincoln asked.

"She was a cyberterrorist." Coulson said. He could play this game too.

"Hacktivist." She corrected. "No one ever got hurt because of information I leaked."

"Technically Ward did."

"What part of that sentence proves _your_ point? I hurt a _real_ terrorist using a computer from the back of a van."

"I'm lost." Bobbi said looking between Coulson and Skye.

"I was part of a hacktivist group, called the Rising Tide. We believed in freedom of information, so obviously SHIELD was like our worst enemy. I had been hacking into SHIELD and leaking information for like six years, _and_ I had managed to find the powered person that Coulson's team had been looking for before they did and got him to trust me and fear them. It was a good day for me." Skye laughed at the memory. "And then they showed me that he was in danger of exploding."

"So you worked for the people that kidnapped you to save a person you taught to fear the people that kidnapped you." Bobbi asked. "Yeah that's a bit worse than mine."

"I think it's important to share that that powered person also kidnapped her." May said.

"Well, Mike did think that he was protecting me." Skye defended.

"Wait, Mike? Is this Metal Mike?" Lincoln asked. "The one I met? He kidnapped you? He said you guys were friends."

"I don't take being kidnapped that personally. I work for the first man to kidnap me, and I'm friends with the second." Skye laughed at the look of disbelief on Lincoln and Hunter's, faces.

"I think Skye wins." Mack deadpanned. "You don't take being kidnapped personally." He muttered under his breath while shaking his head.


	16. Date

"May," Coulson called as she was leaving his office. "Do you- would you want to, you know, go out to dinner? Without the kids? Some place nice?"

"Coulson, it amuses me that you're this nervous about asking me out." She walked out, closing the door behind her.

"In what world was that an answer?" He called after her.

"You've known me for years. I'm confident you can figure it out." He could practically feel her small smile growing on her face and feel the quiet laughter.

He started looking up places to eat that were within emergency response distance of the base, but the found nothing. He expanded the search results thinking that it was unlikely that anything would happen in the short amount of time that they would be gone, and even if it did, they had three kids that were well versed in dealing with unexpected events, and their kids had teams of agents to help them just in case.

Coulson finally settled on a fancy new Italian place about an hour's drive away from the base. It was five hours from the time he estimated they should leave, and he was failing to pick out a nice enough suit.

After spending about an hour staring into his closet, he gave up and paged Skye.

"What's up DC?" She asked walking into his office.

"I need help."

"With what?" She pressed.

"I don't want to say?" He looked at the floor just beyond his shoes.

"Seriously, Coulson? How am I supposed to help you if I don't know what I'm supposed to be helping with?" Her arms flailed up in frustration.

"I asked May out, and I don't know what suit to wear." He mumbled.

"You asked May out? Like on a date? A for real date?" Her voice rose in excitement with each word she spoke.

"Keep it down." Coulson shushed. "I don't want everyone to know, at the very least until we know whether or not there will be a second."

"You two have been dancing around this since before I got involved with SHIELD. I can tell. There _will_ be a second, and probably a third and fourth and fifth and-"

"Skye!" Coulson's frustration and stress levels were rising. She was making a bigger deal of this than he was. "Can you just help me pick out a suit, please?" He said gesturing to his closet.

"You keep your suits in your office closet?" For once Coulson was grateful for his youngest's short attention span. He merely nodded in response to the girl's question.

She peered into his closet for about two minutes before pulling out a light gray suit, a white shirt, and a pale blue tie.

"You think she'll like it?" He asked holding it up against himself.

"I think she'll love it." The young girl smiled.

"By the way you're in charge of the base tonight, and don't tell anyone!" He called after her as Skye walked out of Coulson's office with a huge smile on her face.

Why was everyone leaving his office while his was still talking to them today? It was getting a bit annoying.

~_~AOS~_~

"Have either of you seen Skye?" May asked FitzSimmons.

Fitz shook his head, but Simmons answered. "Coulson called her up to his office about twenty minutes ago. Oh, she's right behind you."

Skye had walked to the lab to talk to FitzSimmons about having a movie night while the parents were gone but seeing May there seemed to deter her from those thoughts because all she could think about upon seeing her was May and Coulson's upcoming date.

"Skye, can I borrow you?" May asked.

She had a feeling May was about to ask a similar favor to Coulson's. Sure enough Skye found herself in May's bunk for the first time ever.

"I need you to help me pick out a dress." May looked far more composed than Coulson, but that wasn't saying much. It kind of freaked Skye out to see May so nervous.

"For what?" She asked. Skye obviously already knew, but she was curious to see whether or not May would confide in her like Coulson had.

"I have a date tonight. With Coulson." Skye's smile widened. She tried to mimic her same reactions from just a little earlier so May wouldn't realize that Coulson had already told her, but for once in her life, May seemed too distracted to notice anyway.

Skye immediately found something perfect in May's closet. It was a pale blue dress with a gray accent around the waist. It would match perfectly with Coulson's suit.

"Are you sure? Do you think he'll like it?"

 _These two are so much alike!_ She thought to herself as she answered May exactly as she had answered Coulson. "I think he'll love it."

"Thank you." May said surprising Skye by wrapping her in her arms.

"Your welcome."

"Don't tell anyone about this. Not even Simmons." May said and Skye walked out of May's room. She ran to her own bunk where she could laugh as much as she wanted without anyone asking why.

May and Coulson snuck off the base, drove about five miles away to where a limo awaited them, and then continued the ride to the restaurant. They were already in the limo when they noticed their matching clothing.

"You had Skye pick out your suit." May said with a small smile. Their girl was something else.

"You had Skye pick put your dress." He chuckled.

They sat together reminiscing and laughing. Both of them laughed more than they had in a long time and by the time they had to head back to the base, they both knew there would be a second date. It didn't need to be said.

"I wonder how long she'll be able to keep it a secret." Coulson asked as they walked back into the base.

May automatically knew he was referring to Skye. Both of their minds were on the kids anyway. They had been a major topic of discussion that night. "I don't know, she's a good operative, and she respects us, but she seemed so excited."

"Maybe we should just tell FitzSimmons." Coulson said as they walked through the hallway hand-in-hand.


	17. Wedding

Neither Bobbi nor Hunter really wanted to make a big deal about their second wedding. They had done the whole big wedding where they invited relations of relations last time and it had been absolutely dreadful. Nothing had gone according to plan. Neither of them ever wanted to do that again.

Besides it was too dangerous to contact their family to even tell them that they were getting remarried. That part was sad for each of them, but they had their own neat little family at SHIELD. It was extremely dysfunctional, but it was their family.

The closest thing they had to an argument was when they had to decide if Mack was going to walk Bobbi down the aisle or be Hunter's best man, and that had problem had quickly been solved by Mack himself who just leaned down between them with a hand on each of his friend's backs and said, "It really wouldn't be that hard for me to walk Bob down the aisle and then stand behind Hunter."

The other struggle they had was finding someone on base that could officiate. No one had expected the answer to that problem to lie in an offer from Billy Koenig, but apparently he had officiated SHIELD weddings before.

Everything seemed to be falling into place, and it was almost as if the universe wanted Bobbi and Hunter to get married again.

The bride's and bridesmaids' dresses they ordered fit perfectly. All of the guy's tuxes fit nicely. The food arrived on time.

Bobbi and Hunter could ask for nothing better.

The time finally came and Mack walked Bobbi down the aisle.

Hunter was once again stunned by how beautiful Bobbi could be in a wedding dress, but he hope today would be the last time he ever saw her in one. Twice was good enough for him.

"Bobbi, I've loved you for years. I loved you when we first dated, when we were first married, even after our divorce. That part doesn't get a second chance. I'm not letting you get away from me ever again, my precious hell beast." Hunter said sliding the ring onto Bobbi's right ring finger.

"It goes on the left, Hunter, you'd think you'd of gotten the hang of this by now." Bob said, loud enough so only he could hear. He put it on the left. She spoke louder. "You are the stupidest, most sarcastic, self-centered man in the world and I couldn't possibly love you anymore."

Bobbi put the ring on Hunter's finger.

Billy Koenig seemed to be the only one in the room surprised by the less than typical vows.

"You may now kiss the bride."

And he did.


	18. Ring

**This is the beginning of a short sequence.**

Lincoln wasn't really sure what in the universe he was doing.

He knew what he _wanted_ to do. But when it came to doing it, he wasn't even sure where to start.

"I need to talk to a girl." He said under his breath.

Talking to Skye would give it away, so taking to her was out of the question. May terrified him, and was productive of Skye, so no he definitely wasn't going to talk to her. Bobbie and Skye didn't seem very close, do she probably wouldn't be much help. That left Simmons. She was close to Skye and didn't mind Lincoln, after she had gotten used to powered people. The only problem was whether or not she could keep quiet about it.

But it was with the risk. He needed help.

~_~AOS~_~

"Simmons, can I talk to you for a second?" Lincoln asked hesitantly.

"Sure, what's up?" The doctor replied.

"Um," he looked around the room. "Maybe outside?"

"Ok?" She eyed him oddly, but followed him to an empty room anyway.

"What I'm about to tell you needs to stay between us, ok?" Simmons nodded. "I'm going to propose to Skye." The girl's eyes widened and she looked like she was holding back an excited scream.

"Do you have a ring yet? Are you planning on asking her dad? Wait that's a dumb question her dad doesn't know he has a daughter anymore. How are you going to do it?"

"I was going to ask you to help me pick one out, I'm planning on asking Coulson, and I was also going to ask your help with that." Lincoln answered her rapid fire questions. Skye had rubbed off a bit on the doctor.

"I would love to help." She smiled.

Simmons was thrilled that he had thought to come to her. She didn't know Lincoln all that well despite the fact that he was her second best friend's boyfriend.

 _Oh, that sounds awful,_ second _best friend._ Female _best friend? That's a little better_ , Jemma thought.

~_~AOS~_~

Lincoln drove with Jemma to a jewelry store about two hours away from the base.

Jemma had a huge smile on her face still which led the store clerk to think that _they_ were engaged.

"When are you thinking?" The man asked Jemma.

"What do you mean?" She eyed the man carefully.

"For your wedding." He looked between the happy couple.

"What?" Lincoln asked. "We're- we're not engaged."

"Yes, he just wanted my help to pick out an engagement ring for my friend, and I'm really excited that they're going to get married." Jemma said, her smile widening.

"Well, at least someone's confident that she'll say yes." He began looking at rings. His savings were pretty good and SHIELD took care of almost everything he needed, so he wasn't as concerned with price as with what she would like.

"Of course she's going to say yes." Simmons nudged him. "Skye's crazy for you."

"Well," the clerk said leaning towards Jemma. "If you're single, maybe you'd like to go out sometime?"

The man was not unattractive. He was tall, fairly young, and well built, but Jemma shook her head.

"I'm not actually single. I'm just not engaged to _him_." He gestured at Lincoln.

"Well, if it ever goes south, you know where to find me." Jemma smiled kindly, but she hoped that he was a better salesman than flirt. She turned her attention to scanning rings like Lincoln.

"She'll still be out in the field. I don't know if she'll wear it when she's on missions, but just in case she wants to, look for smaller diamonds within the ring instead of a larger protruding one." Simmons whispered in his ear.

Lincoln nodded in response. He hadn't thought about her field work. How could he forget about that? He was on her specialized team, and he knew it meant a lot to her. Lincoln refined his search.

He knew it when he saw it.

It had two thin silver bands that merged halfway back, there were zigzagged lines etched in the sides of the band. _Skye blue,_ Lincoln laughed to himself as he looked at it. Along the top, small, light blue diamonds were lined up across both bands. In the middle there was a larger blue diamond that rose only slightly above the others.

"Could I see this one please?" Lincoln asked. Jemma immediately came over to see what he had found.

"That's beautiful." Jemma said. "She's going to love it."

"Ah, the stormy sky ring." The clerk pulled out the ring and handed it to Lincoln.

"Stormy sky ring?" Jemma asked, her smile being reflected in her voice.

"Yes, that's its name. We're actually getting ready to take it of display. You're the first in several years to even look at it. Does its name mean anything?"

"My girlfriend's name is Skye, and we first kissed in a storm." Lincoln left out the bit where he had caused part of the storm with his powers.

The clerk laughed a little. "What's her last name?"

"She doesn't have one, yet." Simmons answered.

"She grew up in St. Agnes?"

Simmons nodded. "How did you know?" She asked looking up at him suspiciously.

"I grew up in that town. She was pretty defensive of the younger kids, which put us at odds when we first met, but we became friends after I stopped picking on them." He turned to Lincoln. "You had better take good care of her."

Lincoln smiled. Skye didn't talk much about her life before SHIELD, partly because there weren't many good things that happened to her back then, but also because she saw SHIELD as the beginning of her life. It was nice to meet someone from her past who wasn't a jerk.

"I will."

"Sorry, I didn't actually catch your name."

"Lincoln, Lincoln Campbell."

"Michael Jameson." The clerk responded. "Make sure she's happy for me. She deserves it."

Lincoln smiled. They continued making small talk as Lincoln purchased the ring.

 **I don't know where Michael came from, but he stuck inside my head for a while so I threw him in.**


	19. Permission

**This is a follow up to Lincoln's search for a ring for Skye.**

The next step towards Lincoln's proposing to Skye seemed about as scary as actually proposing to her.

He had to talk to Coulson.

Lincoln did realize that it wasn't required to ask the girl's father for permission, and he knew that Coulson wasn't her real father, but he also knew that it would make Coulson and Skye very happy if he did. So that's how he found himself knocking on the office door of the director of SHIELD.

"Come in." Coulson called. Lincoln walked inside.

To be honest Lincoln wasn't expecting to be let in. Director Coulson was always really busy, so Lincoln was just planning on letting him know that he wanted to talk to him.

"Sit down." Coulson told him.

"Are you sure because if you're busy it can wait. It isn't exactly, well, it can wait if you're busy." Lincoln stuttered.

"Do _I_ scare you this much or is it the topic?" Coulson said once again gesturing to the chair across form his desk.

"A little bit of both, sir." Lincoln replied honestly.

"Call me Coulson." Coulson did want his little girl's boyfriend to be afraid of him, but he didn't want any of his agents to be _this_ afraid of him. "So what are you so afraid to ask me?" He couldn't keep himself from chuckling a bit.

"Um, I've obviously never had a conversation like this before, so I'm not really sure what to say."

"It's really not that obvious since I still have no idea what you're talking about. Just spit it out and we'll work from there."

"IwanttoaskSkyetomarrymebutIwantedtogetyou'repermissionfirstbecausesheseesyouasafatherfigure." Lincoln rambled at the speed of lightning. (Pun intended.)

Coulson stared at him. "Repeat. A little slower if you can." He put a comforting hand on the younger man shoulder.

Lincoln took a deep breath. Coulson wasn't being harsh. He was trying to help Lincoln say what he needed to. He was pretty sure Coulson knew how much Lincoln loved Skye and how much Skye loved Lincoln. Coulson also knew that he couldn't stop Skye from doing whatever she wanted. He wasn't likely to tell Lincoln no, so this conversation shouldn't be as scary as Lincoln had worked it up to be in his mind.

"I want to ask Skye to marry me, but I wanted to get your permission first because she sees you as her father."

Coulson was visibly taken aback, but still he smiled.

"You're asking for my blessing." He said more to himself than to Lincoln, but Lincoln nodded anyway. Coulson nodded back to the young man. "You have it, my blessing, I mean. You put a smile on her face that I hadn't seen her wear for a long time before you showed up. I'd like to see that smile never come off her face again, and if anyone can make that happen, I think it's you."

Lincoln's smile grew wider as Coulson talked. He hadn't known how little Skye had been smiling before coming to Afterlife. He knew that the events after coming to Afterlife had left her pretty emotionally beat up for a few days, understandably, but soon after she had been back on her feet ad pretty happy.

"Thank you, sir. I mean Coulson." Coulson patted his shoulder as he left.

After Lincoln had left and the door had shut behind him, Coulson collapsed in his office chair. He had always seen Skye as his daughter, but the confirmation from someone else was welcome.

He had not expected to ever have that conversation, not because he didn't think Skye would ever get married, but because he didn't think anybody she dated would ask _him_. He wasn't her real father, just someone who cared about her in a fatherly way. Her real father was a man who went crazy trying to find his Daisy.

Coulson couldn't help but wonder how Skye would feel about Lincoln asking him for his blessing in proposing to her. He hoped it would make her happy, but doubted it. She had searched her whole life for Cal. Coulson had kidnapped her. He tried to take care of her, but she had been shot in the stomach twice because he left her alone. What kind of a father was that?

Still, he could not have been more thrilled about his little girl's future fiancé considering him her father. Lincoln knew Skye and what she would want, so Skye must return at least a bit of the love Coulson felt for her.

Coulson also couldn't help but feel sorry that Skye no longer had Cal to walk her down the aisle. Cal was okay, Skye visited him every once in a while. Coulson had made the mistake of letting her visit Cal's veterinary clinic on adoption day once. Needless to say Fitz finally got his dog.

" _Dogs help people heal."_ She had said, and even though Fitz had been mostly healed by then, he let Skye get him the dog.

Coulson laughed at the memory of Fitz seeing the dog for the first time. Coulson didn't regret letting her get it. It took care of two of his kids.

 _One of my kids is getting married_. He thought, there was no doubt in Coulson's mind what Skye would say. Just like there was no doubt in his mind about giving Lincoln his blessing.

~_~AOS~_~

Lincoln, in deciding to ask Coulson for his blessing, had thought about everything Skye had told him about Coulson when he asked why she had stayed with SHIELD.

" _Coulson found me at a low point in my life, and he gave me more chances then I could ever had asked for. He knew I was a hacker and had hacked SHIELD several times, but he still trusted me. He gave me a home." She had smiled. "When he found out about my search for my parents, which was right after I betrayed the team, instead of kicking me out and sending me back into the world without my only skill, he helped me find my family. But by the time he had found anything, I had already wormed my way into a new family. I had, well, back then_ three _siblings; Ward and FitzSimmons. I had a mom, May, and Coulson was my dad. That was all the family I needed. I mean, I was happy to have met Cal and Jiaying, but I could never had stayed at Afterlife. I chose nurture over nature." She had shrugged at the last sentence, smiling up at him._

After seeing Coulson's reaction to Lincoln asking him for Skye's hand, he wondered if he knew even a portion of what Skye had told him.


	20. Proposal

**I realized that I forgot to acknowledge the prompt for chapter sixteen from Torriya. I also didn't follow that prompt exactly because I didn't know how exactly Skye would set May and Coulson up without one of them catching on.**

 **Prompt from Marvel-Tolkien Fangirl, here's the proposal. Plus a little.**

 **I have not had time to write in so long, but I already had this one half written before I even went to camp. I ran through all of my prewritten chapters so things might come a little more slowly for a while, especially with school starting soon. I'm not looking forward to school.**

Lincoln had been kind of distant recently, and, if Skye was being honest, it scared her. Especially now as she looked down at the stick in her hand.

Positive.

Skye was pregnant, and she knew that she was going to keep the kid. She would never subject a child to the kind of life she grew up with. But how would that work? She worked as a field agent in a secret government agency. Her life was in danger all the time, she lived on a secret base full of alien artifacts, and she was constantly surrounded by trained killers. Skye wasn't ready to leave that, but how could she raise a child in that kind of a situation.

Not to mention how her boyfriend would react. She wanted her baby to have a father, but he had been being secretive. What if he was planning to break up with her? What if he didn't want to break up with her but he didn't want the baby?

No she couldn't think about that right now.

~_~AOS~_~

"Simmons?" Lincoln said walking into the lab.

She looked up and smiled.

"Are you ready?" Jemma asked excitedly.

Fitz looked between the two, shook his head in confusion, and got back to work.

"I need your help again." He said. Immediately, Simmons gestured to an empty conference room and the two of them walked in, shutting the door behind them.

Fitz looked toward the door. He knew Jemma had been talking to Skye's boyfriend about something secret for a few weeks. They even left the base together a couple of times. He tried to resist the urge to eavesdrop, he really did, but the over protective big brother in him took over, and he found himself with his ear to the door.

Lincoln's was the first voice he heard. "I want to do it soon, but I'm just not sure how."

"What have you thought of so far?" Jemma replied.

Fitz could practically see Lincoln run a hand through his hair as he said, "My first thought was a hot air balloon."

Jemma laughed and as always Fitz found it contagious. Unfortunately they heard his laughter. The door flung open before Fitz could get far enough away.

"Fitz!" Jemma yelled accusingly.

"Yes?"

"Get over here." Jemma yanked him into the room.

"How much did you hear?" Lincoln asked, almost wincing.

"You want to do something with a hot air balloon soon." Fitz winced.

Lincoln sighed. "Maybe this will be helpful."

"You want to tell him?" Jemma raised an eyebrow at Lincoln.

"He's close to her too. If he's willing to keep it a secret and act surprised later, then yeah, I want to tell him."

"This is about Skye, isn't it? You're proposing!" Fitz shouted. Jemma quickly put her hand over his mouth.

"Fitz, remember the secret part. He wants to surprise her." Her voice was gentle and excited now.

"Help me think of something better than a hot air balloon." Lincoln pleaded.

"I was thinking he could take her to a fancy restaurant and propose to her there." Jemma said.

"Skye has changed a lot in the years since she joined SHIELD. When she first joined the team she probably would have loved being proposed to in some big way, but she's more private now. She'd want to share that moment with you and only you. That means no waiter and no guy steering a hot air balloon. Take her somewhere where it could be just you and her. Somewhere special to you two." Fitz looked down as he spoke.

"I know what to do. Thank you." Lincoln darted out of the room.

"I just helped a guy find a way to propose to my little sister." Fitz looked to Jemma. "That's weird."

"She's not really your sister, you know." Jemma smiled.

"Yes she is." Fitz smiled.

"She's _our_ sister."

"What does that make us?" Fitz laughed.

Jemma paused. "One us must be an in-law." Fitz pulled her in for a kiss.

~_~AOS~_~

"Skye," Lincoln called poking his head into her room. "Will you go on a ride with me?"

"Ok when?" She could use the distraction from her thoughts, and this invitation kind of helped with her paranoia about him breaking up with her. He walked inside.

"Now?" He said reaching for her hand.

Skye gave him a suspicious look, but took his hand and smiled. He pulled her up, and Skye followed him to a van. They climbed in, and Lincoln drove off.

"Where are we going?" Skye looked at Lincoln with her eyes full of love, but also fear. She needed to tell him, soon. Her hand came to rest on her stomach.

"You'll see." He smirked, they had had this conversation before.

He was completely oblivious to her struggle, but nervous himself.

Finally they arrived, and Lincoln pulled a large backpack out of the trunk of the car, shouldered it, and took Skye's hand. Together they walked up a hill. There was no one in sight but them.

When the pair reached the top of the hill, Lincoln pulled a small blanket out of the bag, and laid it put for them.

They sat together in a comfortable silence.

"When I first came to SHIELD, I couldn't stay in that building for very long, so I wandered around. This was the best view in the house."

Skye laughed at the familiar words.

The two spoke simultaneously.

"I need to tell you something."

"I need to ask you something."

"You first." Lincoln said nervously.

"I love you, Lincoln, but I'll understand if you . . ." She bit her lip, trying not to cry. "If you don't want to stay."

"Skye?" Lincoln put a gentle hand on her chin and tilted her head up to meet his gaze. "Maybe I should have gone first."

"No, sorry, I need to finish." Lincoln wiped a stray tear off her face. "I'm pregnant, Lincoln. I'm keeping the baby, and I want you to be around, but we never talked about having a family, so if you want to leave . . . now's your chance." Her head dropped down again. She couldn't stand looking into his eyes if he chose to leave her.

"I love you, Skye." She could hear the smile in his voice and lifted her head up. There were tears in his eyes. His lips met hers, and Skye's heart soared. He was willing to start a family with her. He pulled away and placed a soft kiss on her belly. "And I love you, baby." He spoke to her stomach. "I'm not going anywhere."

Skye's eyes filled with happy tears, which she would forever blame on hormones. Lincoln pulled Skye into his lap and wrapped his arms around her with one of his hands resting on her stomach.

"You had a question." Skye said after a few minutes. She slid off his lap and turned to face him.

He pulled a small black box out of the backpack and got on one knee. Skye covered her mouth with both her hands.

"Skye, will you do the honor of letting me give you and our child a last name? Will you marry me?" Both of their eyes had once again filled with tears.

Skye nodded. "Yes. Yes, I will marry you. I love you." She fell into his arms.

"I love you too, and I will always be there for you. For both of you."


	21. Worry

**I realized that I forgot to acknowledge the prompt for chapter sixteen from Torriya. I also didn't follow that prompt exactly because I didn't know how exactly Skye would set May and Coulson up without one of them catching on.**

 **Prompt from I Like Skylin. Skye gets hurt out on a mission, Lincoln tries to get her to go to Simmons, but she refuses and he just lets her be for a while, but then things get worse and Skye keeps trying to hide it because she hates having everyone worry over her like when she was shot.**

 **Is it hard for anyone else to refer to Skye as Daisy or is it just Coulson and I? Sorry it's taken me so long. I have been so busy that I didn't have time to watch Agents of SHIELD much less write fanfiction about it.**

Lincoln was still not used to working for the people he had hid from for so long, but working with Daisy, well, she spending time with her was worth it. Now, at least, he didn't have to wonder whether or not she was lying to him about being ok. He could see for himself.

"Tremors, Sparky, you two ready to go?" Mack called.

"Yeah." Daisy replied.

"Sparky?" Lincoln looked over at Mack who was currently boarding the jet. "What did I do to deserve that?"

"Tremors doesn't complain." Mack chuckled.

"C'mon, Sparky." Daisy laughed. It was a nice to see her smile for once, so Lincoln quietly boarded the plane.

"Where exactly are we going?" Lincoln asked.

"Arkansas. We found another Inhuman. Bellamy Evans, she's- she's invisible." Mack answered.

"Invisible as in you see right through her or does she blend into her surroundings like a chameleon?" Lincoln asked.

"I guess we're gonna find out." Daisy said with a straight face. Sometimes even Lincoln forgot how often she dealt with this kind of thing. It was hard to reconcile her with the woman he had met, the one who had been absolutely terrified of her new powers.

~_~AOS~_~

"How exactly are we supposed to find this invisible girl?" Lincoln questioned.

"We know where she lives. We'll wait for her to come home." Daisy answered stepping past Lincoln and off the plane.

"Will that ever not creep me out?" Lincoln mumbled under his breath.

"From what I've heard it took her a while to get used to too." Mack said as he prepared to relaunch.

Lincoln shook his head and followed Daisy. "Let's go find an Inhuman and toss them into a completely white box while they have a mental breakdown. I have become what I feared as a child."

~_~AOS~_~

The team pulled up to Bellamy Evan's house just minutes before she got home from work.

She had been jumpy ever since she had been encased in stone. She hadn't done anything different that day, but still she had still found herself trapped in some sort of rock, and when she had broken out of it, she couldn't see herself.

Needless to say it had not been the best day of her life. She had seen the news broadcasts. The regular people turning into alien terrorists. She had been trying to act normal around her coworkers, and she didn't have friends, but she still worried that someone would see her turn invisible and the government would arrest her for something she didn't want and couldn't control.

So when she saw the van parked-waiting-outside her house, she panicked. It had to be the government. Someone knew who she was. She was not going to let them take her. She had seen too many movies where the government had experimented on the alien, and Bellamy was not going to let that be her.

There was a knock on the door. The hairs on the back of Bellamy's neck stood on end.

She grabbed a knife.

Another knock.

She walked slowly toward the door.

Bellamy opened it just a crack. There were only two people at the door, one man and one woman.

"Bellamy Evans." The woman phrased it more as a statement than a question, but Bellamy nodded anyway, her knife poised. The action of stabbing them playing through their mind.

"We know you're scared, but we're not going to hurt you. We're here to help." The man said.

"'We're from the government, we're here to help.'" Bellamy mocked. "Not a chance." She threw the door open and swung the knife at the woman. _C'mon, turn invisible._ She thought to herself. It worked. She turned invisible as she cut a deep gash into the woman's side.

"Daisy!" The man shouted. Funny that her would be captor would be named after a flower.

The woman gasped in pain, but that didn't stop her from grabbing Bellamy and tossing her to the ground. She wasn't sure how the woman had managed to grab her, but she felt the pain from where her head hit the ground. The woman pointed some sort of gun at her head and everything went black. When she woke up she was in a white box.

~_~AOS~_~

"Daisy, how bad is it?" Lincoln asked.

"It's fine. Just a scratch." She lied. She grabbed a bandage and a fresh shirt from the back of the van. Daisy wrapped the bandage around her abdomen as tightly as she could stand and put the new shirt on. "Don't worry about it."

Lincoln didn't quite believe her, but he also knew there was nothing he could do to stop her. They drove off as soon as the containment cell had risen to the jet where Mack waited.

~_~AOS~_~

"You really should let Simmons look at that cut." Lincoln begged. He was met with a look that clearly said ' _drop it.'_ "At least let me look at it. I _am_ a doctor."

"I. Am. Fine. Lincoln. Let it go." Daisy said.

The cut had been bothering her pretty badly the past few days. It didn't seem to be getting any better, but she didn't want anyone freaking out about it.

"You're not fine. You wince whenever you work out. It's getting worse. Let me look at it. Daisy, please. I just want to help you." Lincoln pleaded. "It's okay to let people help you."

"Enough, Lincoln." Daisy walked out of the room. Lincoln hung his head. _There really is no changing her mind is there?_

~_~AOS~_~

A week later there was a meeting with Fitzsimmons, May, Coulson, Hunter, Bobbie, Mack, Lincoln, and Daisy. They had discussed progress with the portal, Ward, and Inhumans. When they all started getting up to leave, Daisy dropped to the ground unconscious.

"Skye!" Coulson shouted.

Lincoln scooped her up, careful to avoid touching her wound. He ran with her to the med lab and set her down on a bed. Simmons was not far behind. The two got to work immediately. Daisy's wound was badly infected and it was making her sick. It was a wonder she had lasted as long as she did without passing out.

The team crowded around outside. She was family to them. May looked ready to kill someone, the only trouble was she didn't know who to blame. Coulson could barely move out of fear for his little girl. Mack was preparing to beat Lincoln as soon as he was finished helping Tremors. He knew something had been wrong when they had gotten back to the plane, but Lincoln had kept his mouth shut.

Simmons and Lincoln stepped out into the area where the team had been waiting. Mack grabbed Lincoln by the throat.

"Whoa, Mack." Bobbie yelled.

"Why didn't you tell us she was hurt? Why did it get this far?"

"Do . . . you think . . . I could . . . change her mind . . . on anything?" Lincoln choked out the words as he gasped for breath. Mack released him and he fell to the ground. "I tried to help her. She wouldn't let me. What could I have done?"

"Why wouldn't she come to us?" Coulson looked broken as he stared back at his girl lying on a stretcher attached to machines and tubes.

"I didn't want to see that look on your face again." Daisy spoke so softly as she woke up.

"What do you mean?" May said. She was at the girl's bed almost immediately.

"I don't like you guys worrying over me." Daisy coughed. "When I was shot you guys risked so much to save me, and then when most of you knew I was going to be okay you were all still so worried." She took a deep breath. "I don't like feeling like I'm hurting you with things I can't even control."

"Skye- Daisy-" Coulson corrected. "We're you're family, it's our job to worry about you."

"You're not hurting us, Daisy." May added. "But you are hurting yourself."

"I know."

"If you don't want to worry us any more than we already do, than you need to let us help you." Simmons added. "Cause now I have to put you on bedrest."

Daisy groaned.


End file.
